By: Mary Votava '05

10/24/02

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Tuesday afternoon, a captivated audience gathered in '64 Hall to listen to a humble and unassuming man talk about his experience with evil.

He began by declaring, "This is important. I am not a pol-itician. I am a one-man crusade. I am a living historian, and I just want to tell the history of the Cambodian people to the next generation so that they will not forget what happened."

Dith Pran was portrayed in the 1984 Hollywood movie The Killing Fields that chronicle his survivng four years in a rehabilitation camp under the communist Khmer Rouge regime, which came to power in Cambodia after the Vietnam War and was responsible for the genocide of between two and three million Cambodians.

He spoke at Providence College as a part of a month-long tribute to Cambodian culture, which includes exhibits in the Phillips Memorial Library and the Hunt-Cavanaugh Gallery, as well as a film festival this weekend at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) and a celebration of Cambodian dance this Sunday in '64 Hall.

Though the PC students in attendance were surely well versed in the development of Western Civilization, Cambodia is a part of Indochina and therefore it was beneficial for Pran to first give a quick summation of the history of Cambodia and the events leading up to the rise to power of the Khmer Rouge.

Cambodia remained neutral during the first half of the Vietnam War, but was eventually pulled in on the side of the United States and mass destruction ensued. It was under these war-torn conditions that the Khmer Rouge's promises of a better life to the Cambodian people became appealing. He said that with destruction all around, the Cambodian people had to look somewhere for help.

Pran confessed that many Cambodians, including himself, stayed in Cambodia after the war with the hope that the new government would be better. "We didn't know they were evil. We thought that the Khmer Rouge were liberal and believed in having a better life. We refused to believe that the Khmer Rouge would come and destroy its own people."

When Pran asked the audience if they had seen The Killing Fields, a vast majority of hands went up and a smile stretched across his face as a proof that his one-man crusade was making a difference. This movie, shown at various times throughout last weekend on PC's academic channels, shows the story of Pran who chose to stay in Cambodia only to be imprisoned by the Khmer Rouge and chronicled his narrow escape to the United States. Pran spoke quietly, admitting that he still could not watch parts of the movie. He said, "It's so real for me."

Pran's indignation was apparent when talking about his life under the Khmer Rouge. "In that regime we did not have the right to do anything. We became like robots…they really did want us to die."

At other points though, Pran showed a lightness of heart about his experience when talking about the beauty of the Cambodian culture that is now struggling to revive like the rising of the sun. He admitted the only way he had come to cope with the trauma was throwing his whole self into his work: he is now a photojournalist for the New York Times.

There was a wider message at work Tuesday afternoon as Pran spoke. People in the audience raised questions about the state of the world today, and in light of Pran's experience implored him as to what can be done. Pran relayed his experience of taking pictures the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, and the speech shifted topic.

He made strong comments about the United States' role in the world today. Pran shared with the audience his personal opinion that if the United States invades Iraq, many countries will have to become involved and possibly destroyed, allowing for another regime such as the Khmer Rouge to come to power.

As Pran spoke with the authority of a man who has lived through the reign of a government responsible for the deaths of almost all of his family, along with two to three million of his countrymen, it is hard to doubt the validity of his experience. He said, "Evil is still evil, it is just under a different name."

This message struck a chord with Sabrina Murphy '05. She commented afterwards, "Dith Pran speaking today was very important because it is so necessary for Americans to look at our history critically and the effects of our global politics, especially in light of our current involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq."

Pran reiterated throughout his speech that he came to educate the next generation about his experience. He stressed that he does not want the next generation to make the same mistakes and he thanked the crowd multiple times for caring about the situation, encouraging more dialogue in the future.

Though Pran spoke of the painful past of the Cambodian people, he posed a strong challenged for the future to the group in attendance Tuesday. He urged, "Now the war is hitting home and we have to do something to make peace happen. We have to eliminate this kind of crisis and learn to live together without harming one another."

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Story Source: the Cowl