OU Int'l Week speaker recalls Cambodia's killing fields

2007-05-17
By Meghan Montgomery
Athens NEWS Campus Reporter


The keynote speaker for Ohio University's 2007 International Week recounted his survival from one of history's worst genocides Tuesday night at Baker Center.

"I never gave up, and I promised in my heart over time that I would never stop talking when I survived," said Dith Pran, whose story was told in the award-winning film, "The Killing Fields." "This story needed to be told, so you can save lives for the future generations, because this could happen again and again."

Dith Pran survived the Cambodian genocide committed by the Communist Khmer Rouge regime, explained a representative from OU's Cambodian Student Association during Pran's introduction.

In the late 1970s, Pran covered the Cambodian civil war for The New York Times, but was not permitted to leave the country when other foreign correspondents evacuated. According to the Cambodian student representative, Pran endured four years of torture and starvation in labor camps, while the Khmer Rouge killed nearly a quarter of the population, including 50 of Pran's relatives.

Now, as the founder of the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, Pran speaks about the Cambodian holocaust to promote awareness and prevent future genocides. "I'm not a hero, I am a messenger," said Pran.

In the beginning of his speech, Pran explained how the Communist regime was allowed to take power partly because of negative American public opinion after the Vietnam War. "People ignored Cambodia because American voters at the time said 'don't go back to Southeast Asia...enough is enough,'" said Pran. "I know why America did not look back, because they said 'we lost so many people already.' That's why during the time no one paid attention."

Pran said that when the Khmer Rouge came to power, they thought communism was the best way to change the world. "Communism to them meant you work together, you sleep together, you eat together, and you are supposed to be one person," said Pran. "But this is not how it works, because they have another rule... a jungle rule that we suffer."

Pran said that when the Khmer Rouge took the Cambodian capital, Phnom Penh, in 1975, he made the mistake of staying behind. "That's why we lost so many people, because we never believed the Khmer Rouge would do such horrible things to people, such as killing children and killing priests," said Pran.

According to Pran, when the Communist regime came to power, their first initiative was to rebuild Phnom Penh and empty the city by moving the urban population to the countryside. He said the Khmer Rouge destroyed everything because they believed in starting from zero.

"They wanted to kill all of the generation who knew anything 'American,' and who felt what lies in the city is better than the countryside," said Pran. "They wanted to get rid of the city people and promote the country people, because they believed they could turn the people in the countryside into robots who would not question and who would just do what they want."

Pran said that although the Khmer Rouge wanted to supposedly rebuild the country, they killed the engineer who could build irrigation; they killed the doctor who could save lives; and they stopped educating the children who were supposed to be the future generation. Pran said they didn't have hospitals because the Khmer Rouge closed them, so they made untrained teenagers their nurses and doctors. "They killed by allowing people to starve to death, by killing doctors, and by confiscating medicine," recalled Pran.

In order to survive, Pran said he would eat crickets, or anything he could. "Cambodians don't eat wolf, but when you have no choice and you are sent to a jungle with plenty of wolf... you learn how to make a trap," he said.

Pran stated the importance of keeping hope in order to survive the genocide. "Losing hope happened to many people. Some people gave up hope, but I never gave up hope," said Pran. "I believed that the evil never could stay forever, but I pretended to be stupid. That's how I survived; you have to know how to play games with the enemy in order to survive."

At the end of his speech, Pran affirmed the importance of speaking out in situations like these, in order to minimize the killings. "We cannot stop it completely, but we must learn how to do something instead of saying we can't do it," he said.

Pran's story and message is depicted in "The Killing Fields" and in his book, "Children of the Killing Fields." He testified before the House of Representatives about the Cambodian genocide, and today receives recognition for his struggle and his mission.

Tuesday night, Thomas Hodson, director of the E.W. Scripps School of Journalism at OU, awarded Pran the school's Carr Van Anda Award for his contributions to journalism.

"I suffered tremendously, but I have people here who care, and who won't let this happen again. I hope together we can make a change," said Pran.