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WILLIAMS: When we come
back, a discussion with the man who survived and came to
prominence following "The Killing Fields," now
wanting to make sure that story is never forgotten. There's a new project, a book designed so people will never forget the genocide in Cambodia in the mid-1970s. It's the work of Dith Pran, a man whose story became known to American movie audiences chiefly because of what he survived and what he's been able to achieve since "The Killing Fields." It was 1975 when Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge swept into Cambodia and launched a ruthless, genocidal campaign that eventually claimed an estimated two million lives. The story of one Cambodian inspired the movie "The Killing Fields," based on the life of Dith Pran, a translator and photographer for The New York Times. (Excerpt from "The Killing Fields") WILLIAMS: During the fall of Phnom Penh, Pran risked his own life to save that of his American colleague, New York Times foreign correspondent Sydney Schanberg. Schanberg was expelled from the country; Pran was sent off to the killing fields. But he eventually escaped from Cambodia and moved to the United States, where he became a citizen in 1986... Mr. DITH PRAN: I'm glad I made it. (Foreign language spoken) That means, `Long live freedom.' Thank you. WILLIAMS: ...and was reunited with his old friend, Sydney Schanberg. Mr. SYDNEY SCHANBERG: (Excerpt from "Today," 1986): And our relationship in a way is solider now because it--it's not interfered with by the, let's say, the heroics--I mean, the--not the heroics we performed but the--the idea of heroicizing each other. WILLIAMS: The portrayal of Dith Pran in "The Killing Fields" won an Oscar for fellow Cambodian Haing Ngor, who had also escaped the violence of the Khmer Rouge. But Ngor escaped the genocide in Cambodia only to be shot to death in this country. He was killed on a street in Los Angeles. Now Dith Pran, who's working in New York as a photographer for The New York Times, wants to make sure people never forget the genocide in Cambodia. He has compiled a collection of personal essays by survivors of the killing fields. (Excerpt from "The Killing Fields") BRIAN WILLIAMS, anchor: When he started his project, Dith Pran placed an ad in a Cambodian newspaper looking for eyewitnesses who were children at the time of all the slaughter. He got 29 responses from Cambodians, reminiscences that have become a book called "Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields." The royalties from the book go to the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project that teaches American high school students about what happened in Cambodia. He is here with us in our studios. And good evening to you. Mr. DITH PRAN: Good evening. WILLIAMS: Full disclosure here. We've covered many of the same stories in New York in your role as a photojournalist and mine, but we've never talked about this topic. Part of your life is--is history lesson, always teaching and reteaching this story. Remind all of us what was Pol Pot doing? Where is he thought to be now? What was the Khmer Rouge up to? Why did all this killing take place in the first place? Mr. DITH PRAN ("Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields"): Well, first of all, I'd like to tell the audience that because the Vietnam War spilled over into Cambodia, that's what happened; it turned Cambodia upside down in 1970. The war began, bombardment, war getting bigger and bigger until 1975. The Communists took over all the Indochina and that area, and the Khmer Rouge came to power. And we thought that the Khmer Rouge would allow all of us to work together and rebuild the new Cambodia. But our dream didn't come true that when they came to the power, they want something different. They want to empty the city. They forced people to work 14 to 16 hours a day, and they treat people worse than animals and they killed a lot of people. And that s--shocked me and I'm glad that I survived. And my mission as a survivor, I must do something to--to--to tell the world what happened to the two millions Cambodian people that got killed during the Khmer Rouge. So I feel that I compiled this book with 29--they were former children of the killing field, and I'm proud of them because they agree and they feel that they have to join me to tell the story to the outside world. And my goal is to recruit more messengers, because, as you know that, myself cannot go all over the place and talk about the Cambodian genocide. And I'm glad that I got 29 more people who can help me to spread the story of the killing field to the--the--the--the children who are willing to learn more about the genocides. WILLIAMS: Can you generalize at all about what their recovery has been like after what they saw? Mr. PRAN: Well, the--it's very difficult for them, for these children, but like I said, that they--they--they want to tell the world. Like me--they saw me as a--as a person that succeed in telling the Cambodian genocide to the world. So they say, `Well, we get to do it,' because it's very important because the Cambodian killing field didn't have any--enough evidence to tell the world. So this is the real voices, what they saw, what they went through. They're very strong. Even they--they have to work hard in order to bring the memory back, the past. It's--you know, they're living in real hell. And they were young, and this is terrible for them. And let me jump into where the Khmer Rouge are today now. WILLIAMS: Mm-hmm. Mr. PRAN: Khmer Rouge still in Cambodia, still exist. The leadership is still around, but we--we have a chance to put them in a corner. And they cannot come back to the power, but we have to be careful because these real criminals, they cannot go military, they may go politically. So--but the Cambodian people have learned the lesson already. We're not going to allow them to come back. WILLIAMS: Dith Pran, I know you spent the evening with us here online cha--chatting with people on the Internet. And--and thank you for coming in, and--and good luck with your project. And we have a related program note. As is often the case with the stories we cover here on the broadcast, there's much more on this subject on our Web site at msnbc.com. In the World section we have a special report there, Children of the Killing Fields. It features the stories of Cambodian children, as we've been discussing here, forced to flee their country and see what they saw and survive it during the exodus back in 1975. Dith Pran | Web Master | Home |
