The Mysterious Murder of a Cambodian Actor/Genocide Survivor

by Michelle . · 2010-02-02 09:02:00 UTC
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Did Haing Ngor die for his role in a film about the Cambodian genocide? The Oscar-winning star of The Killing Fields was gunned down in a dark alley in L.A.'s Chinatown in 1996, and now his family wants the investigation into the case reopened.

Conspiracy theories surrounding Ngor's death refused to die when three members of a local gang were convicted of what was determined to be a robbery-related murder, and now they've been given new life by a surprising admission in last year's trial of a former Khmer Rouge prison chief.

"Haing Ngor was killed because he appeared in the film The Killing Fields," Kang Kek Ieu, known as Comrade Duch, told the Cambodian court. He added that Pol Pot, the notorious leader of the genocidal Khmer Rouge, "used a kind of trick used by Stalin when he killed Trotsky in order to kill Haing Ngor."

For many, the facts of the case never added up. If Ngor was shot resisting a robbery, why was he left with $2,900 in his pocket and the keys to his Mercedes lying on the ground next to the car? At the time of the trial, an investigative trip to Cambodia was called off. Today, the FBI remains convinced that the murder was not ordered by the now-deceased dictator -- and like all of history's great mysteries, the death of Haing Ngor seems destined to remain the realm of circumstantial evidence and and wild speculation.

Photo credit: Dr dre.

Michelle . has been involved in various activist endeavors, including the Teach Against Genocide pilot campaigns.
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