Dith Pran in Minnesota |
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From: DithPran <DithPran@email.msn.com> Date: Wednesday, November 04, 1998 9:35 AM The Minnesota Daily Subject: Cambodia Keywords: Pran Date: 05/07/1990 Headline: Cambodian holocaust is furthered by world silence Author: Nelson, Stacy Page: 1 LN DEP DEF LINES:00120 INCHES:00016.5 PICAS:00099.02 ERRORS:00000 Stacy Nelson Staff Reporter Problems in Cambodia could escalate to another holocaust if the world continues to remain silent and supply weapons to the Asian country, according to Dith Pran, New York Times photo journalist. Pran, whose work in Cambodia with New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg was portrayed in the movie The Killing Fields, spoke at a conference Saturday on campus. The conference focused on the mental health and human rights issues in refugee health care. The day's events were organized by the Students' International Health Committee, a University organization. Mimi Winsberg, SIHC coordinator, said she wanted to include Pran in the conference to give people insight about those who survived the Khmer Rouge. Understanding refugees' political and cultural backgrounds is essential for health care providers in order for them to give sensitive treatment, she said. Pran said the Khmer Rouge experience, for all Cambodian refugees, was horrible and causes depression and anxiety in refugee camps as well as in the United States. Once a peaceful country, Cambodia suffered when 2 million people were killed by the Khmer Rouge from 1975 to 1979. Even The Killing Fields did not portray the magnitude of the violence, brutality and blood, Pran said. A movie could never show the total holocaust, he said, because audiences like happy movies, not those that make them feel they should do something. "If we show the world (the) true story, we will have no audience," he said. The horror continues today, he said, because the world still sends arms to Cambodia to continue the war against Vietnam. Cambodians are killed daily by land mines and heavy weapons which have been sent there. Both the killings and the existence of the Khmer Rouge could be stopped, he said, if the weapon supply were discontinued and if the world would condemn the current situation. "If we all remain silent, it could happen again, could happen in my country," Pran said. Pran's speech was designed to give the audience an idea of the Cambodian political background. For the American public, however, learning about this area is difficult, according to David Spencer, SIHC coordinator. The background of Cambodian refugees is more difficult to learn than other Asian refugees, since the United States was not involved with Cambodia when it became involved in the war, according to Spencer. "With Cambodia, no Western countries were involved, so it became isolated," Spencer said. "A lot went on without the eye of Westerners." People should not only learn refugees' political history, but what exists in politics currently, according to Patricia Walker, medical director of the International Clinic at the St. Paul Ramsey Medical Center. The current U.S. policy on Cambodia is "morally reprehensible," Walker said. The United States not only supports but supplies aid to the Cambodian coalition government, which includes the Khmer Rouge. "A lot of Americans don't know that the Khmer Rouge is still in the UN (United Nations), and that the Khmer Rouge flag is flying at the UN," Walker said. "This is comparable to the Nazi flag flying we should be outraged, and Americans would be if they knew." "The world allowed them to represent Cambodia at the United Nations since 1975," Pran said. "I've been waiting, waiting for years. I know the world can stop these killings if they want to." ==== Headline: PRAN2.STOPublish Date: 11/16/1993 By Kiyoshi Takenaka Staff Reporter Cambodian holocaust survivor Dith Pran, whose experience was depicted in the Academy Award-winning film The Killing Fields, will speak this evening at the Bell Auditorium on the future of his native land. The Khmer Rouge captured Dith Pran in 1975 while he was working in Cambodia with a New York Times reporter. The government held him in a labor camp for four years, until he escaped to Thailand. Dith Pran is now a New York Times photojournalist and has dedicated himself to informing the world of the Cambodian crisis. He was appointed Good Will Ambassador by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and testified before the U.S. Congress about Cambodia.People in the United States had some knowledge about the war in Vietnam, but they didn't know much about Cambodia before The Killing Fields came out in 1984, said Chann Noun, Institute of Technology senior and Cambodian native. Dith Pran's efforts have educated more people about the Cambodian tragedy, said Chann Noun, who once worked with Dith Pran in Cambodia. The two-decade-old Cambodian civil war officially ended last summer following the establishment of a new democratic government. But the Khmer Rouge, which killed up to 1.5 million people during its reign in the mid-1970s, remains defiant to the new government. The most important items on the Cambodian government's agenda are the handling of the Khmer Rouge, swift removal of numerous land-mines and economic development in rural areas, Dith Pran said. The peace-keeping operation in Cambodia was the most expensive and largest in the United Nation's history. The $1.7 billion mission included 22,000 military and related personnel at its peak. Unlike peace-keeping forces in other troubled regions, the Cambodian peace effort worked because of cool-headed U.N. leaders, Dith Pran said. ``They didn't try to fight the Khmer Rouge back,'' he said. ``The United Nations in Cambodia didn't believe in violence.'' Dith Pran's speech and a discussion period will follow a special showing of The Killing Fields by the University Film Society. The movie starts at 7 p.m. Admission is $4 for University students with ID and $5 for the general public. Prior to his appearance in Bell Auditorium, Pran will speak at noon at the Great American History Theatre in St. Paul. ========= JUNE 23, 1997 - EDITORIAL/OPINIONS "All too often we have seen the worst perpetrators of political mass murder escape." Pol Pot must be tried for political atrocities If reports emerging from the muddled Cambodian political landscape are true, one of the most hated and vicious dictators of the 20th century may soon stand trial for his crimes. The announced capture of Pol Pot will do little to en d Cambodia's constant political warfare. But if he stands trial in an international court, it will mark the first time a leader of such stature is held accountable for political genocide in person. Pol Pot ruled Cambodia from 1975-1979 as a fanatical Maoist dictator. His regime of terror left two million dead from starvation, brought about by his failed agrarian movement, and from large-scale torture and execution. Most Americans, however, only learned of these horrors after the movie "The Killing Fields" was released in 1984. Although Pol Pot was eventually driven from power, for the past 18 years his Khmer Rouge group has staged a constant guerrilla war from the jungle and has controlled large parts of Cambodia. He has flourished as ruler of a smaller, but still powerful, kingdom carved out for himself. Sadly, Pol Pot is not unique. All too often we have seen the worst perpetrators of political mass murder escape. Idi Amin, Joseph Stalin and, most recently, the Serbian leaders who encouraged ethnic cleansing in Bosnia have all evaded accountability f or their regimes' deadly policies. The Bosnia case, especially, has proven bitter for many. International war crime trials have been held and perpetrators of ethnic cleansing have been successfully prosecuted, but the leaders whose hate-filled nationalist ic rhetoric and military leadership made these acts possible have so far escaped unscathed. But now in Cambodia, Pol Pot may face an international trial that would prove the system can work. Cambodia's government on Saturday announced that he had indeed been captured, ending a week of speculation. Ironically, Pol Pot's downfall was brought ab out mainly by the Khmer Rouge after a series of betrayals and assassinations split the party, leading to massive defections and fighting between splinter groups. Famed Cambodian refugee Dith Pran, whose escape from Pol Pot's labor camps was portrayed in "The Killing Fields," wants to see the former leader stand trial before the world, not just pay for what he did to Cambodia. "We want him alive, but I'm very wo rried that someone may get too angry and shoot him," said Pran in an interview with the Tampa Tribune. "Killing for me doesn't mean anything. If he's alive, I feel I can find justice," he added. Cambodia's government said on Saturday that it would ask the United Nations secretary general to set up an international tribune. If so, Pran may get his wish. Such a trial would be a crucial symbol. It would send a message to other current and past di ctators who are guilty of political atrocities, alerting them that they can be brought to justice even decades after their acts. The true message of such a trial would go beyond accountability and vengeance. Like the Nuremburg trials in Germany following World War II, it would again remind the world of the horrors of political genocide. We must never forget that it is possible. A Pol Pot trial would remind us that mass political killings persist, and we must always strive against them. |