Dith Pran, human rights activist, rest in peace

by: los anjalis

Mon Mar 31, 2008 at 22:53:07 PM PDT

His personal struggle among the larger struggle of the Cambodian holocaust under the Khmer Rouge was the basis of the very moving film The Killing Fields.  The New York Times (where he was a photojournalist until his diagnosis of pancreatic cancer), published an article on his life and contributions, and a multimedia piece featuring Dith Pran's last words.  Both are powerful.

Dith Pran's photos are phenomenal, and portrayed the true tragedy of what went on in Cambodia.  Photojournalism is such a powerful way of informing the world of the horrors that we don't otherwise have access to.  At least in the American media, photojournalism in times of recent war (like that in Iraq) is virtually nonexistent.

But back to Dith Pran.  His life-long hope was to have perpetrators of war crimes in Cambodia tried for their crimes (2 million people were killed during the reign of the Khmer Rouge).  Pol Pot, the head of the Khmer Rouge, died under "house arrest" in the 1990's.  But preparations are finally underway for trials for the other leaders of that regime.

On a final note -- Janet Wu wrote about Dith Pran in the Boston Globe yesterday:

"I often wondered how, without outward anger or hatred, he so calmly campaigned against the guilty, many of whom had escaped into the jungles, eluding justice. Dith Pran was the opposite of the man who nearly killed him. For the last two decades of his life, Pol Pot hid like a coward in the jungles bordering Thailand, protected by a cadre of brainwashed teenage soldiers. Dith Pran stood firm. He never fled. He never wavered in his quest for justice."

A lesson for us all.