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'Killing Fields' Photog Dith Dead at 65

Times photojournalist and anti-Khmer Rouge crusader had pancreatic cancer

By Caroline Zimmerman,  Newser User

Posted Mar 30, 2008 12:39 PM CDT
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(Newser) – Photojournalist Dith Pran, whose saga was re-created in the film The Killing Fields, has died of pancreatic cancer at 65, the New York Times reports. The Cambodian native became the Khmer Rouge's most vocal opponent after escaping in 1979, having worked in labor camps and survived on a spoonful of rice a day. He moved to New York, where he began working for the Times and against the Cambodian genocide. "I'm a one-person crusade," he once said.

Dith worked as an assistant to Sydney Schanberg in Cambodia, where he saved the Times correspondent from execution. Schanberg, who won a Pulitzer for his Cambodia work, returned to the US, but Dith didn't make it out. He eventually escaped into Thailand, and Schanberg helped him reunite Stateside with his family. 

First lady Rosalynn Carter introduces Dith Pran at a meeting of the National Cambodia Crisis Committee, in this Tuesday, Jan. 29, 1980 file photo, at the White House.
First lady Rosalynn Carter introduces Dith Pran at a meeting of the National Cambodia Crisis Committee, in this Tuesday, Jan. 29, 1980 file photo, at the White House.   (Associated Press)
New York Times photographer Dith Pran, poses for a photo with his wife Ser Moeun at the Beverly Hills Hotel, in this Tuesday, March 26, 1985, file photo in Beverly Hills, Calif. Dith Pran's death from pancreatic cancer was confirmed Sunday, March 30, 2008, by Sideny Schanberg, his former colleague...
New York Times photographer Dith Pran, poses for a photo with his wife Ser Moeun at the Beverly Hills Hotel, in this Tuesday, March 26, 1985, file photo in Beverly Hills, Calif. Dith Pran's death from...   (AP Photo/Lennox McLendon, File)
This photo provided by Jane Freiman Schanberg, shows New York Times photographer Dith Pran in his room at Roosevelt Care Center in Edison, NJ, Friday march 13, 2008. Dith Pran's death from pancreatic cancer was confirmed Sunday, March 30, 2008, by Schanberg, his former colleague at The New York Times....
This photo provided by Jane Freiman Schanberg, shows New York Times photographer Dith Pran in his room at Roosevelt Care Center in Edison, NJ, Friday march 13, 2008. Dith Pran's death from pancreatic...   (AP Photo/Jane Freiman Schanberg)
This photo provided by David Barron shows New York Times photographer Dith Pran, Saturday Feb. 9, 2008. Dith Pran's death from pancreatic cancer was confirmed Sunday, March 30, 2008, by journalist Sydney Schanberg, his former colleague at The New York Times. Pran was 65.
This photo provided by David Barron shows New York Times photographer Dith Pran, Saturday Feb. 9, 2008. Dith Pran's death from pancreatic cancer was confirmed Sunday, March 30, 2008, by journalist Sydney...   (AP Photo)
New York Times photographer Dith Pran relaxes in his room at Roosevelt Care Center, in Edison, N.J., Friday, March 14, 2008.
New York Times photographer Dith Pran relaxes in his room at Roosevelt Care Center, in Edison, N.J., Friday, March 14, 2008.   (Associated Press)
Dith Pran, center, embraces some of his relatives he has not seen since 1979 at the Site 2 refugee camp in Thailand seen in this Aug. 16, 1989, file photo.
Dith Pran, center, embraces some of his relatives he has not seen since 1979 at the Site 2 refugee camp in Thailand seen in this Aug. 16, 1989, file photo.   (Associated Press)
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World • Lifestyle • Media • US

 
genocide • New York Times • Thailand • obituary • Pulitzer Prize • Cambodia • Khmer Rouge • Dith Pran • Sydney Schanberg • photojournalist • photojournalism • labor camp • The Killing Fields

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