DITH PRAN
AN EXTRAORDINARY MAN
Dith Pran, Cambodian 'Killing Fields' survivor, dies of cancer at 65 BY ERIN EINHORN DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER
Updated Sunday, March 30th 2008, 10:21 PM
The daring New York Times photojournalist whose story became the basis of "The Killing Fields" - and the inspiration behind his "one-person crusade" to tell the world about the Cambodian genocide - died Sunday.
Updated Sunday, March 30th 2008, 10:21 PM
The daring New York Times photojournalist whose story became the basis of "The Killing Fields" - and the inspiration behind his "one-person crusade" to tell the world about the Cambodian genocide - died Sunday.
Dith Pran, 65, who suffered from pancreatic cancer, was best known for his work with Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Sydney Schanberg covering the murderous 1975- 1979 Khmer Rouge reign that killed as many as 2 million Cambodians.
Among the dead were 50 of Pran's own relatives - his father, his sister, three brothers and their families.
In a letter to Times staffers Sunday after Pran's death in a Jersey hospital, Executive Editor Bill Keller called Pran a hero.
"Pran reminds us of a special category of journalistic heroism - the local partner, the stringer, the interpreter . . . who knows the ropes, who makes your work possible, who often becomes your friend, who may save your life, who shares little of the glory, and who risks so much more than you do," Keller wrote.
Schanberg has credited Pran with saving his life and the lives of other journalists for insisting that he come along when the group was taken captive.
When Schanberg received the 1976 Pulitzer Prize, he accepted on behalf of Pran, who was in prison in Cambodia, where he endured four years of torture until fleeing to Thailand in 1979.
His reunion there with Schanberg was recreated in the 1984 Academy Award-winning movie "The Killing Fields."
"There was no way I could have done the work I did without him," Schanberg told Reuters. "We became more than friends. We became brothers."
Pran followed Schanberg back to New York and was hired by The Times, where colleagues Sunday celebrated his kindness and joy for life.
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What a shame! He will never be forgotten. Thanks for posting this, I had no idea.
ReplyDeleteMorgan
Morgan, have you seen the film, "The Killing Fields?" It's pretty overwhelming.
ReplyDelete