Dith Pran in the News |
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South Plainfield H.S. in New Jersey Dith Pran shares experiences with South Plainfield students Published in the Home News Tribune 5/20/98 Reliving pain of 'Killing Fields' By SARAH GREENBLATT STAFF WRITER After surviving Cambodia's killing fields, Dith Pran hopes to make his painful recollections memorable to everyone. Dith, whose captivity in the hands of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge army was documented in the movie, "The Killing Fields," took his story to South Plainfield High School yesterday. "We all have to learn more about genocide," said Dith, who now lives in Woodbridge and works as a photographer for the New York Times. "Evil pops up anywhere." Knowledge of history is the best weapon against genocide, Dith told an audience of about 200 attentive juniors and seniors. Dith was taken captive by the Khmer army in 1975 while serving as interpreter and assistant for New York Times reporter Sidney Schanberg. Along with many other educated and professional Cambodians, Dith said he was forced to work in a labor camp, where residents received scant food or water and faced beatings or execution for the smallest infractions. Two million Cambodians eventually died at the hands of the Khmer Rouge in the 1970s. Acknowledging that Khmer leader Pol Pot's death last month prevented him from being brought to justice, Dith expressed hope that others from the regime will be forced to answer for their crimes before an international tribunal. Dith emphasized that individuals such as Pol Pot, Adolf Hitler and Josef Stalin lack the power to do great evil on their own. "Don't forget one person cannot kill so many people," he said. Several students said the presentation moved them. Senior Sarat Munjuluri said he was greatly impressed that Dith voiced no ill will toward Americans who opposed U.S. involvement in Vietnam and Cambodia. "For him to be that kind and open-hearted is noble, to say the least," Munjuluri said. Senior Danielle Stebila said she believed Dith's warning that genocide could occur anywhere, including the U.S. "I guess it could happen here, too," Stebila said. "There's no reason why it can't." Source: Home News Tribune Published: May 20, 1998 ===== Dear Pran, Today's program was a great success in every way. Our administration, which is always nervous about assembly programs, was not only impressed with your presentation, but they were also pleased with our students' response. The faculty who were able to attend a session were also very positive in their reactions. but most importantly, you both moved and excited so many of our students. I suspect that many will continue to think about and discuss the ideas you expressed as well as your experiences. Their interest and their compassion have been awakened. You are a terrific educator! I hope that we will be able to build on today's success and generate even more interest in the subject of genocide studies. Principal Massaro has already asked me to request your return to South Plainfield High School in the spring of 2000. Knowledge of history, as you stated so eloquently today, is the only hope we have to combat the evil that perpetuates crimes against humanity. My colleagues and I are committed to doing what we can to help teach this history. Once again, thank you for coming to South Plainfield High School and sharing your life's story and work with us. Sincerely, Fran Flannery =========== Genocide unpunished Cambodia's notorious Pol Pot dies in the jungle Friday, April 17, 1998 POL Pot, who was responsible for the deaths of up to 2 million Cambodians, is apparently dead. Reporters and photographers saw his body this week in the jungle near the Thai border. Khmer Rouge guerrillas said Pol Pot died of a heart attack, but without an autopsy, that claim is suspicious. It's possible he was killed by his own men. There were also rumors that within days, he might be handed over by his captors -- Khmer Rouge guerrillas who turned against him -- to be tried by an international court for crimes against humanity. Now he will never be punished for the genocide he inflicted on his own people and for the devastation of his country. What an irony if he did die in his sleep since he brought violent death along with suffering and misery to so many. During the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror from 1975 to 1979, one Cambodian in five died of starvation, illness, or execution because of massive purges in the attempt to create a primitive, rural society. Among those targeted were all educated people and professionals such as doctors, religious and ethnic minorities, Buddhist monks, and anyone who questioned the brutal regime. Cambodia has yet to heal from the savage legacy of Pol Pot. The world community, including the United States, should continue to push for Pol Pot's henchmen to be brought to justice. Dith Pran, who survived the genocide and was portrayed in the movie "The Killing Fields," said this week that he hopes an international war crimes tribunal will still be created to try the surviving Khmer Rouge leaders who made up Pol Pot's inner circle. "The Jewish people's search for justice did not end with the death of Hitler," Dith Pran said, "and the Cambodian people's search for justice doesn't end with Pol Pot." Copyright © 1998 Bergen Record Corp. ========================= Please visit my website: The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, Inc. P.O. Box # 1616 Woodbridge, NJ 07095 Attn: Kim DePaul, Executive Director Email:DithPran@msn.com Website:http://www.Cambodian.com Website: http://www.DithPran.org/link.htm ==== You can read more Cambodian news at http://www.Cambodian.com Click " Daily News " or at Website: http://www.DithPran.org Click " Current Cambodian News & Events " ========== The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, Inc. Spreading the Word of the Cambodian Genocide Project Goals: •Foster interest in schools for genocide education •Teach American students about the Cambodian genocide •Provide speakers to schools across America •Donate our book, Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields: Memoirs by Survivors •to schools/school libraries •Maintain the website Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields is published by Yale University Press (May 1997). Compiler: Dith Pran. Editor: Kim DePaul. ISBN: 0-300-06839-5. To order contact Yale University Press at: 800-987-7323 or 203-432-0940. The book contains 29 essays by people who were children during the Khmer Rouge reign. Their stories are eyewitness accounts to the Khmer Rouge atrocities. The essays retell their struggles, experiences in the forced labor camps, and their ultimate triumph over the suffering. ========== Ellis Island Honors Linda McCartney Sunday, May 10, 1998; 1:45 p.m. EDT NEW YORK (AP) -- Linda McCartney has been posthumously awarded the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. McCartney, the wife of Paul McCartney and a longtime crusader for vegetarianism, died of cancer last month at age 56. She was one of 120 people honored at a ceremony Saturday on Ellis Island, where immigrants used to be processed before entering New York City. No one from the family was at the ceremony, so the medal will be delivered to McCartney in England. Others cited at the 12th annual awards ceremony included Dith Pran, whose story was told in ``The Killing Fields,'' actors Stephen Seagal and John Amos, and the gold-medal winning U.S. Olympic women's hockey team. The awards given by by the National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations honor a wide variety of efforts to ``enrich or invigorate society,'' said chairman William Denis Fugazy. Past recipients include President Clinton, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Coretta Scott King, and Muhammad Ali and Elie Wiesel. © Copyright 1998 The Associated Press |