The reason why Hollywood celebrities are talking about Ugandian warlord Joseph Kony

Joseph Kony

If Joseph Kony lived in relative anonymity before this week, he's an internet star now.

A video about the atrocities carried out by Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, called Kony 2012, has racked up nearly 50 million views since Monday.

The marketing campaign is an effort by the advocacy group Invisible Children to dramatically increase awareness about a jungle militia leader who is wanted for atrocities by the International Criminal Court and is being hunted by 100 US Special Forces advisers and local troops in four Central African countries.



Joseph Kony
Warlord: Joseph Kony, seen here in 2006, is a hunted warlord in northern Uganda who is accused of recruiting tens of thousands of child soldiers

Joseph Kony
Wanted man: Kony was indicted by the International Criminal Court on 12 counts of crimes against humanity and 21 counts of war crimes is accused of killing thousands and displacing up to 2 million people




Invisible Children
Infamous: Invisible Children's campaign has made Kony a household name with the hope that pressure on the US government will keep American troops hunting for him in Uganda

Uganda, Invisible Children and #stopkony were among the top 10 trending terms on Twitter among both the worldwide and US audience on Wednesday night, ranking higher than New iPad or Peyton Manning. Twitter's top trends more commonly include celebrities than fugitive militants.

And some of America's most visible celebrities have thrown their weight behind the campaign. Oprah Winfrey, Tori Spelling, Sean 'Diddy' Combs, Rhianna and four Kardashians have tweeted about the warlord.



Even teenage pop star Justin Bieber, the second-most popular user on Twitter, promoted Invisible Children's message several times including: '#Kony2012 is number 1 trending topic on Twitter worldwide!! See why ... It might change ur life.'

Kony has recruited up to 66,000 child soldiers in the past two decades. His troops often come into villages and kill the adults then rape the girls and force the boys to fight in his army.

'Kony is a monster. He deserves to be prosecuted and hanged,' said Col Felix Kulayigye, the spokesman for Uganda's military.


Sean 'Diddy' Combs
Support: Sean 'Diddy' Combs has mentioned the #stopcony campaign several times in his tweets




Kim Kardashian
Viral: Four Kardashians, including Kim, have thrown their considerable social media weight behind the cause




Sean 'Diddy' Combs
Kim Kardashian
Big names: 'Diddy' and Kim are just two of a host of celebrities who have caught the Kony-mania and made the Ugandan war criminal one of the biggest names in the world in less than a week

He was one of the first people indicted by the International Criminal Court and has been evading capture by international authorities since 2005.

But the explosive popularity of the Stop Kony campaign has also cast a harsh glare on the cause and on Invisible Children, the organization behind it.
 
 
For starters, Kony already seems to be marginalized. His forces -- once thousands strong -- have been so degraded that the Ugandan military no longer considers him a threat to the region. Because of the intensified hunt for Kony, his forces split into smaller groups that can travel the jungle more easily
Experts estimate that the LRA now has only about 250 fighters. Still, the militia abducts children, forcing them to serve as soldiers or sex slaves, and even to kill their parents or each other to survive. The LRA now operates in Congo, the Central African Republic and South Sudan.
 
 
The Atlantic has argued that by focusing so much attention on a fading warlord, the Kony 2012 movement is diverting millions of dollars away from charities working to stamp out starvation in the Horn of Africa, slow the spread of AIDS or battle widespread corruption -- all issues that effect far more Africans than a single warlord.
Invisible Children has also been criticized for favoring direct military intervention in Uganda. It also strongly supports the Ugandan Army, which has been accused of widespread torture and other human rights violations.
 
 
Foreign Affairs magazine accused the group of exaggerating and manipulating facts surrounding Kony and the LRA to over-emphasize the scale of the abductions and murders committed.
Finally, as international aid groups go, Invisible Children spends a huge portion of its donations on overhead. Last year, the group raised about $8.7 million but only 37 percent -- about $3.3 million went to support programs in central Africa.
 
 
It has been criticized by the charitable arm of the Better Business Bureau for not responding to a request for information.
Charity Navigator, a nonprofit watchdog that rates charitable organizations, gave the group two out of four stars for financial transparency because its ledgers aren't audited by an independent committee.
 
 
Despite all this, the inspirational message of the Kony video has touched a national nerve among the social media generation.
Jolly Okot was abducted in 1986 by the militia group that later became the LRA. The then-18-year-old could speak English so was valuable to the militants. She was also forced to have sex.
Today, Okot is the Uganda country director for Invisible Children, in charge of 105 employees. She said the group is helping 800 people affected by LRA violence to attend high school and university. She said the program has given hope to kids who previously dropped out of the education system.
'The most exciting thing about this film is that I'm so grateful that the world has been able to pay attention to an issue that has long been neglected,' Okot said.


Jason Russell
Man with a mission: Jason Russell, the filmmaker who devised the 30-minute video, helped found the aid group Invisible Children
'I think it is an eye-opener and I think this will push for Joseph Kony to be apprehended, and I think justice will get to him.'
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said it has been hard to raise public awareness about Kony since issuing his warrant in 2005.
'Kony is difficult, he is not killing people in Paris or in New York. Kony is killing people in Central African Republic, no one cares about him,' he said.
'These young people from California mobilizing this effort is incredible, exactly what we need.'
He praised the group that made the film.
 
 
'They are not fighting, they are just putting the right focus: stopping the crimes, arresting Kony, helping people,' he said. 'Perfect.'
Ben Keesey, Invisible Children's 28-year-old chief executive officer, said the viral success shows their message resonates and that viewers feel empowered to force change. It was released on the website www.kony2012.com.
The burst of attention has also brought with it some criticism on Internet sites of Invisible Children's work, including the ratio of the group's spending on direct aid, its rating by the site Charity Navigator, and a 2008 photo of three Invisible Children members holding guns alongside troops from the country now known as South Sudan.
Invisible Children posted rebuttals to the criticism on its website, saying that it has spent about 80 percent of its funds on programs that further its mission, about 16 percent on administration and management, and about 3 percent on fundraising.
 
 
The group said its accountability and transparency score is currently low because it has four independent voting members on its board of directors and not five, but that it is seeking to add a fifth. The group said the three workers in the photo thought it would be a good 'joke' photo for family and friends.
Kony's Ugandan rebel group is blamed for tens of thousands of mutilations and killings over the last 26 years.
Rear Adm Brian L Losey, the top U.S. special operations commander for Africa, told reporters last month that US troops are now stationed in bases in Uganda, Congo, South Sudan and Central African Republic as part of the anti-LRA fight. Losey said there's been a decrease in the lethality of LRA activities attributable to U.S. and partner nation efforts.
 
 
Ruhakana Rugunda, the Ugandan diplomat who led the country's failed peace negotiations with Kony in 2006, said the work of organizations such as Invisible Children preserves the memory of an insurgency whose brutal legacy should never be forgotten.
The talks with Kony, mediated by South Sudan, ended in 2008 after the rebel leader refused to sign the final peace agreement, saying he could not guarantee his security once he left the bush.
The last known images of Kony show him shaking hands, and sometimes smiling, with dignitaries visiting his camp. Some images showed him wearing a suit and shiny black shoes.
'Kony gives you the impression that he is harmless, that he cannot catch a fly,' Rugunda said, recalling his conversations with Kony, who was an altar boy before he became an elusive rebel leader.
 
 
Rugunda last saw Kony in a forested camp in eastern Congo before the rebel leader and his men fled to the Central African Republic, where they have retained the capacity to harass villagers for food.
Rugunda said that capturing Kony alive would set in motion a 'full accountability mechanism' in which the world would get to know how it came to be that Kony committed the many crimes he is accused of.



BELOW IS THE VIDEO



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