http://news.yam.com/afp/international/200803/20080331002832.html
殺戮戰場真實主角狄潘去世 享年65歲
法新社╱何世煌 2008-03-31 01:05
（法新社紐約三十日電）柬埔寨種族屠殺的生還者、慘痛經驗還被改編成得獎電影「殺戮戰場」的狄潘（Dith Pran）今晨去世，享年六十五歲。
狄潘的朋友及前「紐約時報」特派員薛柏格告訴法新社，自一月起開始與胰臟癌搏鬥的狄潘今天凌晨在新澤西州的醫院過世，前妻隨侍在側。
薛柏格說：「狄潘是個特別的人、非常特別的人。只見過他一次面的人發出的慰問如潮水湧進，說狄潘令他們印象深刻。他確實是這樣，對每個人都如此。」
他說：「狄潘對我來說真的就是一切。」
狄潘自一九八零年起一直擔任紐約時報的攝影記者。他和該報的關係始於他和薛柏格共事，從一九七二年至一九七五年一同採訪柬埔寨內戰。
當美國人從一九七五年四月十二日開始撤離金邊時，狄潘和薛柏格奉命留守，採訪赤棉攻佔金邊的消息。兩人和另外兩名記者遭到赤棉逮捕，準備處決，狄潘設法向赤棉聲稱三名西方人是中立的法國記者，四人後來獲釋，得以進入法國大使館避難。狄潘直到一九七九年才逃到泰國。
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080330/wl_afp/cambodiausgenocidephotographypran;_ylt=AhZQwaJERzFqKFkWh7pjLeUBxg8F
'Killing Fields' survivor Dith Pran dies at 65
by James Hossack
1 hour, 50 minutes ago
NEW YORK (AFP) - Dith Pran, whose experiences during the Cambodian genocide of the 1970s were adapted into the award-winning movie "The Killing Fields," died early Sunday at the age of 65.
Dith, who had been battling pancreatic cancer since January, died in the early hours at a hospital in New Jersey with his ex-wife at his side, his friend, the former New York Times correspondent Sydney Schanberg, told AFP.
"Pran was a special person, a very special person. Messages are pouring in from people who met him only once saying that he made a deep impression on them. And he did, on everybody," said Schanberg, who was at Dith's bedside until late Saturday.
"He really meant everything to me."
Dith had worked as a photojournalist at The New York Times since 1980. His connection with the newspaper began when he worked with Schanberg from 1972 to 1975 covering the Cambodian civil war, a conflict that had spilled over from neighboring Vietnam.
When American citizens were evacuated from Phnom Penh on April 12, 1975, Dith and Schanberg stayed behind to cover the fall of the city to the communist Khmer Rouge, who were then closing in on the capital.
Schanberg, Dith and two other reporters were arrested by the Khmer Rouge and held for execution, but Dith managed to persuade his captors that the three Westerners were neutral French journalists.
The four were later released and sought refuge in the French embassy until foreigners there were asked to surrender their passports.
Dith was then exiled to the forced labor camps in rural Cambodia that became known as the killing fields, where for four years he suffered starvation and torture.
Up to two million people died of lack of food and overwork or were executed by the regime, which dismantled Cambodian society in an effort to forge a radical agrarian utopia.
Schanberg, meanwhile, went on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1976 for his coverage of the conflict, accepting the award for himself and Dith, who only managed to escaped to freedom in Thailand in 1979.
"Pran was my brother, that's what we called each other," Schanberg told AFP. "Pran lost his three biological brothers when they were killed by the Khmer Rouge and we bonded when I started working with him.
"It turns out we both had the same mission, which was to tell the rest of the world what was happening to the Cambodian people -- in Pran's case, his people -- and that was the mission the rest of his life."
In an interview with New Jersey's Star Ledger newspaper in March, Dith said he was not going to give into cancer without a battle.
"We have already forced the enemy into the suburbs," Dith said of his cancer after a round of radiotherapy. "Food, medicine and meditation are good soldiers, and I am ready to fight."
Born on September 27, 1942, near Cambodia's Angkor Wat temple complex, Dith worked in the tourist business before joining Schanberg.
"Pran was really a gifted reporter, not just a helper and assistant and interpreter. It was he who made my work possible. None of what I did could have been half as good as it may have been without Pran," Schanberg said.
Dith lost his father, three brothers and one sister during the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror, but always remained hopeful for future generations.
"He was always smiling. I wish everybody in the world had met him, because they too would smile and would probably think more positive thoughts and do more positive things," Schanberg said.
Dith went on to set up The Dith Pran Holocaust Awareness Project, an organization devoted to educating new generations about genocide in the hope of avoiding a repeat of the past.
And in 1985, he was appointed Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
"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," he once said of his work.
"I'm a one-person crusade," he added. "I must speak for those who did not survive and for those who still suffer."
本城市首頁
看回應文章
等級：8
