DITH PRAN: Cambodian Holocaust Survivor Human Rights Educator
By Kitty Katz

He insists that he is solely a messenger, "not a politician or a hero," but those who know him unhesitatingly define Dith Pran as an iconic Asian Pacific American hero as well as a heroic educator. In the latter role he has crisscrossed the United States and travelled the globe fulfilling his vow to "tell the world" about the Cambodian holocaust that decimated his homeland from 1975-1979, and to warn of the potential tragic consequences of complacency about human rights.

Dith Pran is easily the most vocal and well-known survivor of The Killing Fields owing to worldwide distribution of the 1984 film of that name which depicted his life during the Khmer Rouge communist regime led by Pol Pot in 1970s wartime Cambodia.

Born in Siem Reap province in 1942, Pran's sharp intellect, engaging manner and early command of French and English ideally suited him for work in tourism and journalism. In fact, he was New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg's assistant in Phnom Penh from 1972 until the Khmer Rouge seized power in April 1975. The regime plunged his small Southeast Asian country and his life into a 4-year abyss of misery, horror and chaos in which an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians perished from forced labor, starvation, disease, torture and execution. Pran managed to survive and eventually escape by virtue of his wits, his unshakeable Buddhist beliefs, and the intuitive ability to read people that has also made him an outstanding New York Times photojournalist since 1980.

These days, when recalling events of this major tragedy of the 20th century in lectures at world councils, schools and universities, Pran spares his audiences none of the gruesome details. He solidly believes that an understanding of the Cambodian genocide can guard against a deplorable repetition of history and aid in humanizing the world. He is so convinced of the importance of holocaust remembrance as a teaching tool that he has been "spreading the word" since his arrival in the USA. To further his educational goals he founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, Inc., of which he is President.

Praise and recognition for his humanitarian work have been generous and well-deserved. A prime authority on the Cambodian holocaust, Dith Pran is often interviewed for worldwide news publications, TV, radio and online media. He is the compiler of Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors, published by Yale University Press in 1997. For his human rights advocacy he was appointed Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in 1985; received four honorary doctorate degrees; was a 1998 recipient of the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. In 2000 the Asian American Journalists Association named the AAJA-Dith Pran Photo Shootout Award for excellence in photography in his honor.

At the start of 2001 Cambodia's lawmakers approved the creation of a UN-assisted tribunal to try former top Khmer Rouge leaders for genocide and crimes against humanity. Like other survivors of the killing fields and Cambodian-Americans who have waited more than two decades for this official assignment of culpability, Dith Pran greets the news with a healthy mixture of hope and skepticism. It is likely to be years before the legal process brings them to justice.

Meanwhile, Pran's healing and educational mission continues.

Please visit his website, archives and links for additional updated information: www.Dithpran.org.