Sydney Schanberg: Cambodia Genocide

      Sydney Schnaberg, a New York Times journalist, is best known for his work in Cambodia for which he won the 1976 Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.  Schanberg helped uncover the story of Cambodia where Pol Pot about two million of his own countrymen.  In 1980 he released a book about his experiences in Cambodia called, “The Life and Death of Dith Pran” a story about a dear friend he made while working in Cambodia and how he lived through the genocide.  Schanberg was able to help the world understand the genocide in Cambodia and worked with Dith Pran to teach the world about the atrocities that he experienced.  Through Sydney Schanberg’s journalistic skills he taught the world of the terrors of the killing fields.  

In South East Asia in 1953 Cambodia gained their independence after about a hundred years of being under French rule.  Less then ten years after getting their independence, Cambodia's population grew to about seven million and was ruled by the monarchy of Prince Sihanouk.  In 1970, Prince Sihanouk had been deposed by a military coup.  A new right winged government had taken over, led by Lieutenant – General Lon Nol; The Prince out of anger joined a communist guerilla organization called Khmer Rouge. In 1970, the Khmer Rouge guerilla movement began and was lead by Pol Pot.  Pol Pot was educated in France and was a fan of Maoist communism.  Soon after his joining, the Khmer Rouge attacked Lon Nol’s army, which started a civil war in Cambodia.

While Cambodia was having a war of its own, next door in the east, Vietnam was also fighting a war against communism.  Cambodia trying their best to stay out of the war became a neutral country towards North and South Vietnam.  By doing so Prince Sihanouk gave each side what they wanted.  The Vietnamese communist were allowed to use the ports in Cambodia to ship supplies.  The U.S. was allowed to bomb what supposedly were Viet Cong hideouts.   When Lon Nol came to power, the U.S. felt free to go into Cambodia to defeat the Viet Cong.  This then created disaster in Cambodia, constantly having B-52 bombers flying over their country in attempts to stop the war in Vietnam.   The American bombers killed up to 750,000 Cambodians. 

            By 1975 Pol Pot’s force had grown to over 700,000 men and they had defeated Lon Nol’s army.  The Khmer Rouge guerilla movement believed that all Cambodians must work in one huge federation of collective farms and that any western influence was bad.  Anyone that did not fit the regulations of Maoist communism was to be killed.  Upon their taker over the Khmer Rouge forced all occupants of towns and cities were forced to leave, anyone who was to ill or didn’t move fast or refused to go were killed.  Religion was banned and all Buddhist monks were killed.  In addition, anyone who was educated, such as a doctor, teacher, scientist, were killed as well as their extended family.  If anyone was caught with any western technology or product they were killed.  These policies resulted in the murder of millions of Cambodian citizens.  

            Those that survived the evacuation of cities were put to work in fields, with little to eat and impossibly long hours.  The Khmer Rouge discouraged their workers from creating relationships with the other workers and gave them uncomfortable quarters to sleep in.  Soon the workers started to fall ill and were killed on the spot.  Then the Khmer Rouge started to kill anyone one who wasn’t Cambodian or anyone who had a Chinese, Vietnamese, or Thai ancestor.  They soon began to question their own and started to interrogate their members, imprisoning them or killing them if they felt they were even slightly suspicious.   http://www.pbs.org/frontlineworld/stories/cambodia/ (Pol Pot's Shadow, Frontline)

Dith Pran lived through the genocide and was forced to work for the Khmer Rouge.  In 1970 he became a journalist with a small British organization.  In 1972, he met New York Times writer Sydney Schanberg and they both eventually became co-workers and good friends.  Sydney Schanberg had started his journalism career with the New York Times in 1959, and spent most of the 1970s in South East Asia covering Cambodia. 

 

Photograph by Dith Pran

In April of 1975 when American personnel left Phnom Penh when Pol Pot assumed control of Cambodia.  Most Cambodians knowing that the Khmer Rouge would soon be taking over the city fled from the area.  Schanberg helped Pran to get his wife and kids onto a U.S. transport to escape the country.  Pran and Schanberg stayed in Phnom Penh to cover the story.  After the Khmer Rouge had taken Phnom Penh, Schnaberg and Pran didn’t expect the mass murder that was about to happen.  Soon after the takeover the Khmer Rouge started to plunder stores for goods and to kill people on the streets.  The Khmer Rouge had a saying 'To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss.’  
  

The two friends tried to stay together as long as they could, reporting on what was happening in the city of Phnom Penh.  Schanberg and Pran and two other reporters were the only ones who stayed after the clearing of the city.  Schnaberg and Pran along with the other reporters went to a hospital to see how many were dead or injured.  Before reaching the hospital the group ran into Khmer Rouge soldiers.  Pran being the only Cambodian there was able to talk to the soldiers and convince them not to kill Sydney and the other reporters.  The soldiers agreed to not harm them but wanted them to leave the country.  Schanberg was forced out of the county, being taken to the border of Thailand, and then returned back to New York City to look for Pran’s wife and kids.  Pran was not able to go with Sydney to America and had to stay in Cambodia.

Pran was forced to work in awful conditions in the fields.  He was only feed about a spoonful of rice a day.  While Pran was still in Cambodia, which had then changed to Kampuchea, Sydney Schanberg was in New York City writing about his work in Cambodia.  In 1976, because of his efforts to bring awareness to the genocide in Cambodia, Sydney won the Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.  Schanberg never stopped looking for Pran during his time in New York. 

In 1978, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia and overthrew the Khmer Rouge.  They set up a socialist government mostly made up of Khmer Rouge renegades in order to revive the country.  This was a very difficult task because Pol Pot had decided to kill everyone who was educated and had ruined the economy.  During this time while the Vietnam was taking over the government, Pran had made the decision to escape from Cambodia and leave to the border of Thailand.  Once he reached the border he was able to enter a refugee camp and asked on of the U.S. officials to contact Sydney.  Schanberg was able to reach Pran in the next week and helped him become a U.S. citizen and to find his wife and kids. 

Finally in 1989 the last troops of the Vietnam had left due to international pressure.  The U.S. used economic sanctions to force the Vietnams backer, the Soviet Union, out.  This allowed Cambodia to regain its name and establish self-rule. 

Sydney Schanberg and Dith Pran played a major role in telling this story to the world.  Many people ignored the genocide and acted as though it was not happening.  With the help of these two great reporters, we were all able to learn of what truly happened in Cambodia.