For Haing Ngor, Sorrow Marks a Return Home

On Aug. 17, Haing Ngor, winner of an Academy Award for his role in “The Killing Fields,” stepped off a plane in Phnom Penh and saw his homeland for the first time since 1979, when he fled the brutal rule of the Communist Khmer Rouge.

During his stay in the capital city, there were happy moments, such as his reunion with a younger brother he had not seen in 15 years. But mainly, what he saw saddened him.

“My people is very, very poor,” he said, recalling the sun-baked rice fields on the outskirts of the city, dirty streets, poor public hygiene, and the single traffic light in the nation’s capital.

Returns With Dith Pran

His return to Cambodia with Dith Pran, the photographer whom he portrayed in the film, at the invitation of Hun Sen, leader of the current Vietnam-backed Communist regime, made Ngor even more determined to devote his life to freeing his countrymen from the legacy of foreign occupation and Khmer Rouge atrocities.

Between 1975 and 1979, the Khmer Rouge, a radical Communist faction, terrorized Cambodia, killing at least 2 million residents, Ngor said in an interview Sunday, three days after he returned from Cambodia. He lost his wife, unborn child, and other family members during that nightmarish period before escaping to Thailand.

In Phnom Penh, Ngor’s tearful reunion with his brother was filled with sadness and joy. Ngor, now 43, took the shirt off his back to give to his brother. While markets in Phnom Penh are stocked with produce, Thai radios and consumer goods, most Cambodians such as his brother are too poor to afford much, Ngor said. He also made arrangements to build an elementary school in his home village, Samrong Yong, as well as a hospital in Phnom Penh.

In Cambodia, where “The Killing Fields” has been shown, Ngor is as much a celebrity as he is elsewhere in the world. He was often recognized on Phnom Penh’s streets. But those who ventured to speak to him did not want his autograph or a handshake. Instead, they simply told him the movie made them cry and helped release some of their own pain and suffering.

After rocketing to stardom four years ago for his portrayal of Pran, a Cambodian journalist who survived Khmer Rouge rule, Ngor has worked ceaselessly on behalf of Cambodian and other refugees, especially the children.

Picking up a copy of his new book, “Oublies,” or “The Forgotten,” which he wrote in French, Ngor pointed to a photograph of a little Cambodian girl. The child, one of tens of thousands of orphans who live in refugee camps dotting the Thai-Cambodian border, squats on the ground, resting her chin on her palms as she stares ahead with a blank expression.

“What you see in her eyes?” Ngor asked. “Where is the future? Her eyes are very far away from the world.” The girl and other Cambodian refugee children represent a generation on the verge of being lost forever, he said. For Cambodia to survive as a country, he added, the children must have a future.

Since making “The Killing Fields,” Ngor, who continues to live in a modest two-bedroom apartment in an aging building near Chinatown, has devoted most of his time aiding refugees and pushing for peace in Cambodia. To help the estimated 380,000 Cambodian refugees--60% of whom are orphans--stuck in camps near the Thai-Cambodian border, Ngor helped found the Brussels-based Aides aux Personnes Deplacees and the Paris-based Enfants d’Angkor.

Ngor’s personal mission is especially significant now, as Cambodia teeters on the brink of civil war in the wake of a failed peace conference in Paris last month and with the prospect that Vietnamese troops, who occupied the country after forcing out the Khmer Rouge 10 years ago, will pull out of Cambodia on Sept. 26.

Ngor, watching his country’s hopes for a peaceful future again crumbling, does not endorse any faction. But there will be no peace in Cambodia, he said, unless the Vietnamese leave the country and the Khmer Rouge are forbidden to return to power.

His criticisms of the Khmer Rouge and of the political infighting among Cambodian leaders have alienated Prince Norodom Sihanouk, whom he portrayed unfavorably in his autobiography, “Haing Ngor, a Cambodian Odyssey.”

“My book came out and he acted like I am his No. 1 enemy,” Ngor said of the prince, who forbade him on his recent trip from visiting the “Site B” refugee camp he controls near the Thai-Cambodian border.

Reaching into his wallet, Ngor pulled out an $8,000 check from Enfants d’Angkor that he could not deliver to help children at the camp. “He is a very mercurial prince,” Ngor said of Sihanouk. “He flip-flops. He never respect his own words.” But Ngor said the world still needs Sihanouk, because he is the one who can bring the warring factions back to the conference table.

In the United States, Ngor plans to continue his efforts to educate Americans about Cambodian refugees’ plight. He has agreed to appear later this month on ABC’s “PrimeTime Live,” which has scheduled a segment on Cambodia’s political turmoil.

Ngor said his concern goes beyond Cambodian refugees. He is researching a book about the plight of 14 million refugees worldwide.

But his heart will always be with Cambodia, and for now, with his countrymen who despair in refugee camps. Their existence focuses now only on the trucks that bring them food. “My rice field is the truck,” the refugees told him. “If the truck comes, I have food. . . . Every day they just wait. Wait the trucks coming and hand out food.”

When he asked refugee children where their country is, they stretched out their arms to point at the cluttered camp around them and told him: “Here is my country.”

Ngor told them their country is Cambodia, not the camp. But they answered, “No, I born here. I live here. This is my country.”