We are saddened to learn of the death from pancreatic cancer of Cambodian-American photojournalist Dith Pran, whose harrowing story of survival was told in "The Killing Fields." Dith is credited with coining the term for the genocide that took place during the Khmer Rogue regime in Cambodia.
Dith escaped from his native country in 1979 and moved to the United States,where he became a photographer for the New York Times in 1980. His AP obituary reports:
"After Dith moved to the U.S., he became a goodwill ambassador for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, dedicated to educating people on the history of the Khmer Rouge regime.
He was "the most patriotic American photographer I've ever met, always talking about how he loves America," said Associated Press photographer Paul Sakuma, who knew Dith through their work with the Asian American Journalists Association."
The New York Times reports he hope others would work to help prevent such horrors anywhere:
“One time is too many,” he said in an interview in his last weeks, expressing hope that others would continue his work. “If they can do that for me,” he said, “my spirit will be happy.”
Dith is a personal hero. Here's hoping that more people can make his spirit happy.
Photo: In August 2002, Mr. Dith photographed young visitors perched on the base of "Liberation" by Nathan Rapoport in Liberty State Park in Jersey City. The bronze sculpture is a memorial to American soldiers who helped to liberate Nazi concentration camps. For more of Dith's work, see the slide show at the New York Times.
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