‘Killing Fields’ Figure Fears New Civil War in Cambodia

The photographer whose story of survival in Cambodia was told in the film “The Killing Fields” said Friday that he fears that a new civil war is about to erupt in his homeland.

Dith Pran, now a photographer with the New York Times in New York, talked with reporters in Bangkok after completing his first visit to Cambodia since he fled the country in 1979. Pran had been working with New York Times reporter Sydney Schanberg when they were caught up by the Khmer Rouge takeover in 1975.

Pran, along with Dr. Haing S. Ngor, the actor who played Pran in the film, visited camps in Thailand that provide shelter for Cambodian refugees. They were there as representatives of a human rights monitoring group called the Cambodia Documentation Commission.

Pran said he was told by refugees at Site 2, the largest of the refugee camps, that opposition military commanders had told the refugees they are to be moved soon to camps in Cambodia.

After Vietnamese Withdrawal

The shift reportedly will take place after the Vietnamese army completes its withdrawal from Cambodia, now scheduled for Sept. 26. The moves are being planned by both the Communist Khmer Rouge, who were ousted from power in 1979, and the non-Communist Khmer People’s National Liberation Front, which is nominally led by former Prime Minister Son Sann.

“These are plans for civil war, plans for holding civilian Cambodian camp populations as hostages and pawns of war,” Pran told reporters.

Pran called on the United Nations, which administers the camps, and Thai authorities to inform the more than 300,000 refugees in the country that discussions are taking place in Paris to arrange the voluntary repatriation of Cambodian refugees under international auspices.

The monthlong talks on Cambodia’s future have failed to produce any conclusive results.

Pran grew emotional when he talked about the possibility of the Khmer Rouge, who have been held responsible for the deaths of more than 1 million Cambodians, returning to power in Phnom Penh under a political settlement.

Let the Killers Eat Leaves’

“Let the Khmer Rouge killers stay in the jungle and eat leaves,” he said. “They will grow weaker. If they come to the villages and cities and eat rice and bread they will only grow stronger.”

The Khmer Rouge is one of three factions in the resistance currently fighting the Vietnamese-backed Phnom Penh government. One plan being discussed in Paris is the creation of a four-party interim government to rule the country until free elections can be held.

The Phnom Penh government has rejected any role for the Khmer Rouge.

“The majority of Cambodian people don’t want them back in power, even to share power,” Pran said.

Asked about his assessment of the Hun Sen government’s commitment to change, Pran replied that the government has implemented some reforms but that “there is still a long way to go.” He said he had been told by villagers that people are still being tortured in his country.

Pran acknowledged that he was barred from visiting refugee camps housing followers of Prince Norodom Sihanouk, the former Cambodian leader, apparently as a result of Pran’s opposition in the United States to the provision of aid to the Cambodian resistance.

While in Cambodia, Pran was reunited with his sister, his only blood relative to have survived. He said he also prayed at the graves of his mother and father.

He said he found Phnom Penh to be bustling compared to the last time he saw it, after the Khmer Rouge ordered virtually the entire population to work in the fields. But he said the city has a long way to go to be again what it was in the 1960s.