Post Classifieds
Think twice before giving money to Kony 2012
By Mia Summerson
On April 15, 2012
In early March, an activist group known as Invisible Children, Inc. released a video
entitled Kony 2012, which quickly went viral and spawned a movement to end the
actions of Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony.
The movement's motivation is to help children who are being abducted by the group of
rebels known as the Lord's Resistance Army, led by Kony. The Kony 2012 video shows
the alarming number of children being abducted from their homes: the boys being made
into small soldiers, the girls used as sex slaves.
Anyone with a sense of morals can tell you that using children as sex slaves and soldiers
is horrendous, inexplicable and just plain wrong. But I have to wonder why this "stop
Kony" trend is starting now.
The International Criminal Court issued a warrant for Kony's arrest in 2005 for war
crimes and crimes against humanity, but he managed to avoid capture. After 9/11, the
U.S. declared the LRA a terrorist group. Ex-President George W. Bush and current
President Barack Obama both signed anti-Kony legislation in 2008 and 2010, years
before the Kony 2012 movement.
Invisible Children Inc. was founded in 2004 and their cause has always been to stop the
actions of the LRA. As of now they have released a total of 11 videos meant to direct
awareness to the stop Kony cause. So, with the support of the American people and
celebrities like George Clooney and Angelina Jolie, the U.S. has been fiercely supportive
of the Ugandan effort to bring Kony to justice for his horrendous crimes.
Except Kony isn't in Uganda anymore. In fact, he hasn't been there for years. The
Ugandan children shown in the video are no longer in danger.
Is sending money to support the Ugandan government and military really helping to find
Kony?
According to a general from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kony was recently
chased from Congo into the neighboring Central African Republic.
Maybe it should be noted that the current Ugandan government also came into power
through the use of child soldiers, which is something that the Invisible Children seem to
have left out of their video. They also avoid mentioning the already terrifying and violent
circumstances in Uganda at the time of the LRA's rise to power.
The Invisible Children's financial and military support of the Ugandan government is
not going to put and end to violence since the violence of the LRA was born from the
terrible conditions that began when Uganda was taken over by Yoweri Museveni. In fact,
this support might help to increase the violence since the Ugandan government is no less
corrupt and violent than Kony himself.
A recent report from Russia Today has revealed more troublesome information about
Invisible Children. It claims that they supported the Ugandan government in arresting
a former child soldier and carrying out an attack called Operation Lightening Thunder
that led to the deaths of more civilians than LRA militants. According to the U.S.
ambassador to Uganda, Steven Browning, IC planned events to support the attack under
the guise "Kony Must Be Stopped. Rescue Our Children" in 2009.
The LRA came to power as a counter-attack to the violent rule of Museveni. In order
to protect civilians from the LRA, Museveni forced millions of them into Internally
Displaced Persons camps over a period of 20 years, according to the Campaign to End
Genocide in Northern Uganda.
"The Ugandan government used the same violent tactics as the LRA and then blamed it
on them," said Milton Allimadi, editor-in-chief of the Black Star News.
IC has also been criticized for the use of the money they bring in from donations.
According to an article by Grant Oyston, Invisible Children's budget last year was
$8,676,614. Of that sizable amount of money, 68 percent went to paying the staff, getting
them from place to place and making awareness videos. The remaining 32 percent went
to direct services.
"Giving your money and public support to Invisible Children so they can spend it on
supporting ill-advised violent intervention and movie No. 12 isn't helping," said Oyston,
and I couldn't have said it any better myself.
There is nothing in me that believes that Kony doesn't deserve to have his violent rein
ended, but somehow I feel like whining about it on Facebook and hanging posters isn't
going to be enough.
Mia Summerson can be reached by email at summerson.record@live.com.
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