Kony2012 video goes viral, and so do concerns about its producers | World news

A video calling to bring a notorious Ugandan warlord to justice has gone massively viral online, but serious concerns have also been raised about the group responsible for posting it.

« Critics point out that the campaign calls on the public to pressure the US to continue working with the Ugandan military, an organisation that has its own record of abuses.

The Ugandan army continues to commit politically motivated abuses in Uganda," Maria Burnett, senior researcher with Human Rights Watch, Africa Division, told the Guardian.»

« "We have documented numerous cases in which they’ve been involved in torture and arbitrary arrests, as well as a score of killings of unarmed protesters and bystanders during political demonstrations in the past three years."

« The nature of the US’s relationship to Uganda is also potentially problematic, according to Burnett.»

“The US, as far as we know, is trying to advise on how to apprehend, or remove from the battlefield, Kony and his leadership,” said »

“I have some concerns about what the US longer term plans are and what kind of exit strategy they may or may not have, but working to apprehend LRA leaders and protect civilians is crucial.” »

►http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/us-news-blog/2012/mar/07/kony-2012-video-viral-invisible-children

#ouganda #usa #droits_humains #LRA #enfants_soldats

Viral Video Hopes to Spur Arrest of War Criminal

►http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/03/kony-2012

Viral Video Hopes to Spur Arrest of War Criminal

By Spencer Ackerman March 7, 2012 |

2:30 pm

KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.

“The next 27 minutes are an experiment,” says the faceless narrator. “But in order for it to work, you have to pay attention.”

That’s the arresting introduction of Kony 2012, a viral documentary dedicated to stopping the war criminal Joseph Kony, head of the Lord’s Resistance Army. Kony is infamous for kidnapping children and turning them into child soldiers, among other atrocities.

But he’s not famous. That’s what the documentary, and the ambitious viral campaign it spearheads, is trying to change. It’s already attracted both a massive online audience — and a backlash.

The visually sophisticated documentary tells the story of the Lord’s Resistance Army’s brutal history in Uganda — it doesn’t say much about Kony’s flight to the Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic — mostly through the eyes of Jacob, a child refugee whose brother was killed by the militia. At one point, the boy says he would prefer to die rather than to live in the world Kony has made. It hits like an emotional sledgehammer.

And that lays the foundation for the campaign the movie essentially advertises. The nonprofit group behind it, Invisible Children, supports President Obama’s recent deployment of 100 military advisers to Uganda to help its army hunt Kony, a decision that required years of grassroots demands from humanitarian activists. In order to make sure the pressure keeps up, and Kony is ultimately arrested — this year — Invisible Children wants to plaster the cities of the world with red, visually striking KONY 2012 posters, stickers and t-shirts.