Dith Pran

Dith Pran
Born	September 27, 1942(1942-09-27) Siem Reap, Cambodia
Died	March 30, 2008(2008-03-30) (aged 65) New Brunswick, New Jersey
Residence	Woodbridge, New Jersey
Employer	New York Times
Known for	The Killing Fields
Partner	Sydney Schanberg

Dith Pran (27 September 1942 – 30 March 2008) was a Cambodian photojournalist best known as a refugee and survivor of the Cambodian Genocide. He was the subject of the Academy Award-winning film The Killing Fields (1984). He was portrayed in the movie by first-time actor Haing S. Ngor (1940–1996), who won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his performance.

Early life

Pran was born in Siem Reap, Cambodia near the Angkor Wat. His father worked as a public works official.^[1] He learned French at school and taught himself English.

The US Army hired him as a translator but after his ties with the United States were severed, Pran worked with a British film crew and then as a hotel receptionist.^[1]

Revolution

In 1975 Pran and New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg stayed behind in Cambodia to cover the fall of the capital Phnom Penh to the Communist Khmer Rouge.^[1] Schanberg and other foreign reporters were allowed to leave the country, but Pran was not.^[1] Due to the suppression of knowledge during the genocide, he hid the fact that he was educated or that he knew Americans and pretended to be a taxi driver.^[1] When Cambodians were forced to work in labor camps, Pran had to endure four years of starvation and torture before Vietnam overthrew the Khmer Rouge in December 1978.^[1] He coined the phrase "killing fields" to refer to the clusters of corpses and skeletal remains of victims he encountered during his 40-mile escape. His three brothers and one sister were killed in Cambodia.

Pran traveled back to Siem Reap where he learned that 50 members of his family had died.^[1] The Vietnamese had made him village chief but he escaped to Thailand on 3 October 1979 after fearing they knew of his ties with the US.^[1]

From 1980 Pran worked as a photojournalist with the New York Times.

Personal life

In 1986 he became a US citizen with his then wife Ser Moeun Dith whom he later divorced. He then married Kim DePaul but they also divorced.^[1] He also campaigned for recognition of the Cambodian genocide victims, especially as founder and president of The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project. He was a recipient of an Ellis Island Medal of Honor in 1998 and the Award of Excellence of the International Center.

Death

On March 30, 2008, Pran at age 65 died in New Brunswick, New Jersey, having been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just three months earlier. He was living in Woodbridge, New Jersey.^[1][2]

References

1. ^ ^{a b c d e f g h i j} Martin, Douglas (March 31, 2008). "Dith Pran, "Killing Fields" Photographer, Dies at 65". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/31/nyregion/31dith.html. "Dith Pran, a photojournalist for The New York Times whose gruesome ordeal in the killing fields of Cambodia was re-created in a 1984 movie that gave him an eminence he tenaciously used to press for his people's rights, died on Sunday at a hospital in New Brunswick, NJ He was 65 and lived in Woodbridge NJ" 
2. ^ Pyle, Richard (March 31, 2008). ""Killing Fields" survivor Dith Pran dies.". The Associated Press. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080330/ap_on_re_us/obit_dith_pran. "Dith Pran, the Cambodian-born journalist whose harrowing tale of enslavement and eventual escape from that country's murderous Khmer Rouge revolutionaries in 1979 became the subject of the award-winning film "The Killing Fields," died Sunday. He was 65." 

External links

• Dith Pran at Findagrave
• "Dith Pran Biography". http://www.notablebiographies.com/Pe-Pu/Pran-Dith.html. Retrieved 2008-03-31. 
• The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project at the Internet Archive
• The Last Word of Dith Pran New York Times. March 30, 2008. Video Interview of Dith Pran.

• Obituaries:
  • The Times, 31 March 2008
  • The Daily Telegraph, 1 April 2008
  • The Independent, 1 April 2008
  • The Guardian, 1 April 2008

Persondata
Name	Pran, Dith
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1942-09-27
Place of birth	Siem Reap, Cambodia
Date of death	2008-03-30
Place of death	New Brunswick, New Jersey