[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 4]
[Senate]
[Pages 4745-4746]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  COMMEMORATING THE LIFE OF DITH PRAN

  Mr. WHITEHOUSE. Mr. President, I rise today to commemorate the 
extraordinary life of Dith Pran, who risked his life to expose the 
terrors of the Khmer Rouge regime in his native Cambodia, and who later 
became the subject of the Oscar award-winning film, ``The Killing 
Fields.'' Mr. Dith died March 30, 2008, in New Jersey, surrounded by 
relatives and friends. He was a defender of human rights, a journalist, 
a teacher, and a hero.
  As many fled Cambodia during the fall of Phnom Penh to the Khmer 
Rouge in 1975, Mr. Dith sent his wife and children to safety abroad but 
stayed behind with investigative journalist Sydney H. Schanberg to help 
ensure that news of the events there reached the outside world. He 
believed his country and people could only be saved from the Khmer 
Rouge if individuals in other countries understood the tragedy 
gathering in his homeland.
  Amidst the crisis spreading throughout Southeast Asia in the years 
following the Vietnam war--a crisis my father, Charles Whitehouse, also 
saw firsthand through his work as U.S. Ambassador to Laos and Thailand 
in the 1970s--Dith Pran was a witness to, and a fierce critic of, the 
greatest atrocities men have inflicted upon their fellow men.
  Against all odds, Mr. Dith survived the Cambodian genocide in which 2 
million Cambodians, one-third of the population, were killed. Most of 
his extended family were also killed. He suffered through 4 years of 
hard labor, living on just one teaspoon of rice a day and whatever 
animals and insects he could find. Mr. Dith finally escaped from a 
commune and travelled 40 miles to the Thai border through what he 
coined ``the killing fields,'' past the bodies of those killed by the 
Khmer Rouge, before reaching safety.
  After reaching the United States, Mr. Dith became a photojournalist 
for the New York Times. He founded the Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness 
Project to educate individuals around the world of

[[Page 4746]]

the horrors he survived in order to prevent future genocides. He was 
appointed a United Nations Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations 
High Commissioner for Refugees in 1985.
  For his efforts to educate the world, Mr. Dith was awarded the Ellis 
Island Medal of Honor in 1998. He also received the Award of Excellence 
from the International Center in New York.
  Dith Pran said: ``Part of my life is saving life. I don't consider 
myself a politician or a hero. I'm a messenger. If Cambodia is to 
survive, she needs many voices.'' Dith Pran has been a powerful and 
compelling voice for his countrymen and the land he loved. His 
willingness to share his story brought light to dark places and hope to 
millions.

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