Post date: Mar 09, 2012 6:37:47 PM
The video calling for the arrest of Lord's Resistance Army leader Kony swept across the Internet this week, attracting a wave of support on Twitter and Facebook along with a backlash against a little-known team of filmmakers based in San Diego.
The film has sparked a storm of debate worldwide and in Uganda the reactions are mixed. Many believe it is a good thing the world has finally taken interest in one of Africa's most violent militia warlords, but others say the film oversimplifies the issues, is inaccurate and risks reopening old wounds.
Uganda government spokesman says invisible children video is castigating or rather reflecting Africa as a dark continent where there is always unending trouble, while Danish foreign minister expresses concerns over potential crimes against humanity committed by rebel LRA fugitive Joseph Kony.
KAMPALA, UGANDA (MARCH 09, 2012) (REUTERS ) - Rebel LRA fugitive Joseph Kony will be caught dead or alive, Uganda said on Friday (March 09), but while it welcomed a global hit video spotlighting his group's atrocities it cautioned that hunting him down in the remote Central African bush could take time.
"It is unfortunate that foreigners in their desperate effort to raise money from their colleagues outside can come up with non realistic situations, they have turned people's problems into their businesses and it is unfortunate that we have people who merchandise people's problems," said Solomon, a resident of Kampala.
The LRA is notorious for chilling violence including hacking body parts off victims, and abducting young boys to fight and young girls to be used as sex slaves. Kony and his fighters were hounded out of northern Uganda in 2005 after terrorising local communities for nearly two decades.
"How can they use a situation of war to benefit themselves, to make money out of peoples plight, people are dying there, they are in a war situation and to be depicted in a story that is not right, that is certainly not a good thing," added another Kampala resident, Oketayot Galdino.
Kony fled northern Uganda to roam the dense forests of Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan and several attempts to corner him and his rump LRA force, believed to be 200-300 strong, have failed.
Uganda government spokesman Fred Opolot said the country has been peaceful but said the video is meant to castigate and reflect Africa as a dark continent where hunger and wars are the order of the day.
"There has been an outrage, as I mentioned, the country is completely peaceful and what the Invisible Children is doing is to castigate or rather reflect Africa as a dark continent where there is always unending trouble," said Uganda government spokesman, Fred Opolot.
In Denmark, where European foreign ministers were meeting on Friday, Dutch Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal said he had seen a summary of the video and "it speaks for itself".
"As far as his (Kony's) activities are concerned and his behaviour, there is of course a lot to be said also about the question whether he has been actually inflicting crimes against humanity or some other category which will bring him to the top list of those who might be due to go at a certain moment to an international court," Rosenthal said.
In a renewed push to bring Kony to justice, U.S. President Barack Obama sent 100 U.S. military advisers to the region last year to help Ugandan forces track down the self-declared mystic.
U.S. troops have set up small base in CAR where Ugandan soldiers are also operating, though the latest reports suggest Kony is now in neighbouring Congo. This is not the first time outside forces have tried to capture LRA leaders.
In January 2006, eight Guatemalan "Kaibil" Special Forces soldiers serving in the U.N. mission in Congo were killed during a botched operation in Congo's Garamba National Park.
In late 2008, the United States also backed Ugandan-led air strikes and a ground attack on LRA camps in Congo.
These too failed as the LRA leadership slipped into the bush, seemingly after being tipped off, and unleashed a retaliatory killing spree that left thousands dead as attempts to chase them were hampered by bad weather.
Uganda accuse those behind the video as only interested with financial gain.
"Invisible Children - if it is using such images to dupe the international community into ensuring that they contribute financially into its works - I'm afraid to say, it is a wrong approach and indeed its activities in northern Uganda will be further questioned in as far as the amount of money they receive vis a vie the actual interventions that they make in northern Uganda where it thinks it's concerned about," government spokesman Opolot added.
There have been no reported LRA attacks in the Central African Republic or South Sudan since Jan. 18, according to the independent research group Small Arms Survey.
But there have been at least 12 raids in northeastern Congo in the first two weeks of February in areas where LRA groups have attacked during the last three years.
Ugandan officials lamented that the video did not mention the fact Kony had long since left Uganda.