Revisiting The Killing Fields

I recently watched The Killing Fields, which is based on the true story of Sydney Schanberg, a New York Times journalist who reports from Cambodia as the Khmer Rouge take power in the mid-1970s. His close relationship with Dith Pran, a local Cambodian journalist, is at the heart of the story.

It is a very moving film, and powerfully depicts how the violence and terror inflicted by the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia affected everyone in the country, from the local population to Western journalists and diplomats, who were eventually evacuated and left many of their Cambodian friends behind. Schanberg won a Pulitzer Prize for his Cambodia reporting, while Dith Pran, whose support was indispensable to Schanberg's work, was left to struggle to survive the brutal rule of the Khmer Rouge.

During its four years of rule, from 1975 to 1979, the Khmer Rouge tortured and executed the local population, or forced them into work camps where they lived in deplorable conditions. It is estimated that almost 2 million people died during this time.

To escape the Khmer Rouge's reign of terror many Cambodians fled to neighboring countries. About 40,000 Cambodian refugees were able to flee to Thailand while the Khmer Rouge was in power, and several hundred thousand more fled after the Vietnamese invasion in late 1978 which toppled Pol Pot. This refugee crisis led to the founding of RI in 1979. At the time of the initial refugee outflow, Lionel Rosenblatt, who later became RI's President, was working to support refugees out of the US Embassy in Thailand. His life-long commitment to refugee advocacy grew out of this experience.

RI continues to be engaged in Cambodia, supporting one of the last groups to return to their homes after the long war finally ended in the late 1990s. You can view information on our work in the region and our most recent policy recommendations here.

Both Dith Pran and actor Sam Waterston, who stars as Sydney Schanberg in The Killing Fields, have been involved with RI, most recently as Emeritus Board members. Sam has also taken part in various RI advocacy efforts, including narrating our documentary on the genocide in Darfur, On Our Watch. And each year on his birthday, fans of Sam Waterston generously give donations to RI in honor of the actor.