Youth of the World are rising up for the Kony12. inspired by a viral video now seen by more than 55 million. Lucy Larom, head of the Campaign to End Genocide in Uganda...Now! says that they need more information to have all the information that they need to create justice.
President General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni is a war criminal and also needs to be brought to trial. He is currently supported by the US Government.
For the last six years, Joseph Kony has not been in Urganda. The Video is old material. In Uganda, the people were held in concentration camps by the government. More than 1 million died there. They are now back on the land attempting to regain stability. What will the effects of bringing in US Military Advisors, and ramping up efforts to chase down a rebel leader hiding in another country? What will be the effect now to further arm the president, who may be responsible for as many as 7 million deaths in his own country and nearby countries?
Oil has recently been discovered in Urganda, sparking increased US interest. Q" What are the effects of oil companies when they come in to take oil? A: Little environmental protection.
Date: 4/2/2012 2:49:19 PM ( 12 y ) ... viewed 2920 times
OUTSTANDING INTERVIEW ON CHANNEL TEN
ABOUT KONY12 PROTEST
Charlie Lakony, president of the Friends for Peace in Africa, and the Campaign to End Genocide in Africa...Now! held a protest March 31, 2012 outside the Invisible Children World Headquarters in San Diego. The purpose of the gathering was to protest the Invisible Children Video and campaign, Kony12, that has been seen by more than 55 million. It went viral through Facebook in early March. Lucy Larom, head of the Campaign to End Genocide in Africa...Now!, says most of the problem is President General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni. Kony should be brought to trial without military intervention. Museveni is a war criminal and this needs to be addressed. He currently has US government support. There is no mention in the Invisible Children video that more than two million people were held in forced concentrations camps. One Million died. Many have now returned to their land, but are in need of reparations and help. Kony is no longer in Uganda. Museveni's crimes are still going on.
POSITIVE THOUGHTS I AM SENDING...
Props to Invisible Children for a well meaning effort. Props to the Youth all over the world wanting to do good! Prayers for the well being of Uganda's people; They have had enough suffering. Blessings on all San Diego groups wanting to bring the issue of Genocide to public awareness. A Moment of Awakening for new healthy leadership in Uganda, and throughout Africa. Leave the oil in the ground in Uganda; Return to Nature's Original Technology, and get busy making the soil more fertile through sustainable farming and gardening. Get GMO Ag out of Africa. Have the US Military help the people plant gardens and farms through time tested methods that have used for centuries. Celebrate Projects in Uganda and nearby countries that are setting models for Peace and Justice and a return to Indigenous practices. Support local companies who have products to sell here in the US and elsewhere that are Fair trade. May the Uganda people be supported in creating their own decisions for a healthy future. May all children harmed receive opportunities for education and emotional compassionate communication skills. Many all women and men harmed receive reparations, and money from US and others given to Invisible Children go to help the people on the ground. Many all relief organizations on the ground in Uganda get the support they need with local Urganda leadership guiding what they want--listen, rather than lead.
Leslie Goldman
Your Enchanted Gardener
April 5, 2012
10:20 am
Interview with Lucy Larom at the Protest Against Kony12
Background...in conversation with Lucy Larom
Background...in conversation with Lucy Larom
Lucy Larom, Co-chair of the Campaign to End Genocide in Uganda...Now! says that youth, who are inspired now by the Kony12 Viral Video, do not have all the information they need to understand the situation on the ground in Uganda.. They need to understand that Kony is no longer a Uganda problem and therefore a Uganda solution is not required.
Charlie Lakony, President of Friends for Peace in Africa, and founding member of Campaign to End Genocide in Uganda...Now! said that "When Kony was active he was responsible for 3% of the problem. Our message is that Museveni is responsible for 97% of the problem. Uganda is a failed state, one of the bottom ones.
"Today, the country ranks among the top 30 failed states on the index dubbed ‘Postcards From Hell, 2011’. The index published by the influential Foreign Policy (FP) magazine on June 20 specifically cites Besigye’s violent arrests as the reason Uganda places twenty-first out of 117 countries."
a report on the internet says.
CEGUN (Campaign to End Genocide in Uganda ... Now! has been working to bring the condition of Genocide in Uganda into public awareness since 2006. There is much historical information on their website. The website has a video that describes some of the concentration camp atrocities. It was made a number of years ago.
"How can you do something about a problem if no one knows that a problem exists?"asks Larom. The invisible children were in a beautiful position to bring attention to the government-sponsored Genocide that was occurring in northern Uganda against the Acholi people, but they did nothing. Instead they diverted attention to Joseph Kony and The Lord's Resistance Army.
This is understandable in some sense. They wanted to go back to Uganda. Anyone who crossed Museveni could be in danger. But they didn't tell the truth to America's young people. They took our kids for a ride.
"The problem we want known is that we are dealing with one of the most criiminal governments in Africa today. This man Museveni is responsible for genocide in his own country: war crimes and crimes against humanity in Congo: and for involvment in the action that ignited the Rwanda genocide. My Acholi friends have told me all along that he is far worse than Idi Amin.
The basis of the genocide is the forceable encampment of 90% of the Lwo-speaking population (mostly Acholi) of Northern Uganda. With only 48 hours notice Museveni's military (UPDF) drove them from their homeland, bombed and burned homes, poisoned wells and took all their possessions except the clothes they wore on their backs. As a primarily agricultural society their livestock and oxen were extremely important culturally and for their livelihoods. These were conficscated by the government and never returned.
The encampments started around 1996 ostensibly to protect the people from the Lord's Resistance Army, Kony's rebel force. However a recovered memo written by Pres. Museveni to his Brother Salim Saleh reveals another more sinister motive - rich and fertile lands. Read http://www.musevenimemo.com.
Almost two million were marched into camps. An estimated half that number died in the camps, she said.You were forced to leave your home. and forced to build a hut. These were tiny huts, so close together roofs caught fire. These were humiliating conditions. Whole families had to sleep together in a space probably smaller than your living room. The Acholi tribe had great social structure before this and many moral codes. All those things disappeared. They were thrown into an extremely dense living situation. Social Morals broke down.
Soldiers called them biological substances...not even people. Men, women and children were systematically raped by soldiers "guarding" the camps. When the LRA came to abduct children the soldiers offered no protection. The camps according to Uganda expert Samantha Power, became "one-stop shopping" for the LRA. HIV/AIDS and ebola were deliberately brought into the camps by infected soldiers recruited to serve there and spread infection.
There were almost two hundred concentration camps each with populations in the thousands, says Larom. Museveni started disbanding the camps about four to five years ago due to mounting outside pressure. This was done without giving any assistance to the people whose lives were so brutally disrupted for so many years.. Most of the returnees would leave the young kids in camp, go home, clear the land with their bare hands and whatever implements they could make and attempt to plant a garden, and start building a hut.
How far were the homesteads from the concentration camps? A few hours to one or two days walk, likely, she said.
Uganda now has the highest proportion of kids of any country in the world. Half the population is under 15. Parent age adults died in the camps. Now the majority of households are headed by grandparents or teen-agers. When CEGUN started Uganda was said to be the worst place in the world to be a child. Recently it was stated to have the highest PTSD rates in the world.
If you read the definitions of Genocide...the attempts to take away everything that supported human life, to destroy a people and their culture, in part or in whole, this is what happened to the people of northern Uganda.
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Larom continued to tell me that more than six million have also died in Congo in other crimes committed by Museveni. He was convicted of these crimes by the International Court of Justice and ordered to pay a fine in the millions.
At the time the International Criminal Court issued an indictment of Joseph Kony it should have more importantly issued an indictment of Yoweri Museveni for his far greater crimes, she stressed. The motives for this ommission should be deeply questioned, she said.
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According to Larom, "Invisible Children's Kony12 video has lobbied successfully for US military assistance to go after KONY in the neighboring countries of Congo, Sudan and Central African Republic. CEGUN does not support a military solution to bringing Kony to Justice. He is no longer in the country of Uganda. So why must Uganda troops be trained and armed and assisted by 100 US Special Forces in addition to our troops already in Uganda. African nations have resisted the intrusion of an American military command stationed in Africa (AFRICOM). Is this a more subtle way of introducing military might into the region to protect and claim the newly discovered oil in the region which will go into production within the next few years. Or to lay further claim on the vast mineral wealth of the Congo/Sudan/CAR."
She continued, "Acholis as well as other Ugandans have been offended and angered by the KONY2012 video. Many feel the film was insensitive and brought up bad memories. People shown the film in one village in northern Uganda were outraged and the film had to be stopped."
CEGUN and FPA feel that Invisible Children must respect petitions put forth by the religious leaders of the Acholi sub-region and be sensitive to the wishes of the Acholi people themselves. (The Invisible Children Organization did not include the voice of the Acholi people in their video.) They also have made a grave mistake in not revealing the entirety of the truth to our young peoplhere in the US.
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Larom Summarizes:
The Demonstration's simple message on March 31: Kony must be brought to justice by Peaceful means, and Museveni, responsible for far greater crimes must be brought to justice and his case must be brought before the International Criminal Court. Museveni's crimes must no longer be ignored by the Invisible Children.
Charlie Lakony, has been in San DIego numbers of years working on the same cause.
The Demonstration simple message March 31: Kony brought to justice by Peaceful means, and Museveni, responsible for greater crimes should be brought to justice. This is ignored completely in the Invisible Children's Video.
Acholi offended and Angered by Kony12 Invisible Children Video
What does Uganda Need?<.H2>
Why did the message get out now? I asked her.
Kony No Longer in Urganda/H2>
Moreover, all evidence points to the fact that Kony is not even in Uganda, and has not been there for at least 6 years. But IC fails to mention this in the video! The US wants a justifiable reason to go into Uganda and use it as a base to then invade the Congo and Sudan, and elsewhere in Africa.
Invisible Children have issued a statement saying, “The LRA left northern Uganda in 2006. The LRA is currently active in Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and South Sudan. Invisible Children’s mission is to stop Joseph Kony and the LRA wherever they are and help rehabilitate LRA-affected communities.”
Their video is urging US intervention in Uganda, yet they admit themselves that Kony is not even in Uganda.
People being raped, murdered, exploited over these resources. What infrastructure they had is gone. Land grab going on. Forcing people to off their land where their is oil.
Government no reparations after twenty years for hardship.
Uganda say, drop this thing of giving aid...give money to local organizations with their own cultural solutions...All these children are White Kids. It is complex. It is a wonderful thing that the kids imagination is captured, but is this what the people of Uganda need.
Kids see something in Africa
Western Civilization, lost deeper sense of meaning. Kids can really see need.
Something so basic and so open in Africa. They value community and sharing responsibility. There is a deep sense in all of us that responds to this. This is the way it is suppose to be.
Youth of the World Rising Up on Kony12
Genocide against people is happening in Uganda from both Kony and
the president. This is shocking and horrific.
It is not enough to take action against Kony, we have to take action against president Museveni too, according to the groups that held a protest Saturday March 31, 2012. One of the groups was the Campaign to End genocide in Uganda
There are also photos on the internet of the current president using children soldiers and articles about his being responsible for mass genocide.
General Yoweri Kaguta Museveni with victorious NRA commanders and soldiers (now UPDF) inspecting the Uganda-Sudan border in 1986 after successfully pushing UNLA rebels across the border. Note the child soldier in the foreground (right).
She says Ugandans are now more focused on rebuilding their country. Inciting more conflict in the area will only set back the efforts of Ugandans who just want to return to normal life, she suggested.
Others have questioned what going after Kony now will achieve. The rebel leader has already been indicted by the International Criminal Court on war crimes charges, such as rape, mutilation and murder; some worry that seeking to arrest or kill him now might only incite his sympathizers.
"Suggesting that the answer is more military action is just wrong," Javie Ssozi, an influential Ugandan blogger, said this week on his blog.
"Have they thought of the consequences? Making Kony ‘famous' could make him stronger. Arguing for more U.S. troops could make him scared, and make him abduct more children, or go on the offensive."
Ssozi also tweeted Thursday that "the #KONY2012 approach is wrong approach because what does awareness of Kony specifically do? Leads to peace or accelerate war?"
Freelance journalist Michael Wilkerson worries in a blog for Foreign Policy that in the rush to capture Kony, the problems with Uganda's president, Yoweri Museveni, are being overlooked.
Obama sends in the troops for humanitarian Purposes?
No doubt Uganda needs help; they are one of the world’s poorest nations (17th) and have failed thus far to combat the LRA effectively enough to stop them. It’s a good thing that we’re fighting this monster, but for a humanitarian crisis that has been ongoing for almost two decades, that has been the scourge of a nation and a domestic terror threat rivaling the worst guerillas in Africa, it took us this long?
Earlier this year, at least 2.5 billion barrels of crude oil were discovered along Uganda’s border. The Economist reports that the country expects to earn $2 billion a year beginning in 2015.
Powerful Statement Points Out that Kony and President Museveni are both implicated in Uganda Genocide
About a week and a half ago, my Facebook homefeed exploded with multiple posting of Invisible Children’s viral video Kony 2012. I watched the video and was astounded by its content. In a video full of inaccuracies, distortions, manipulations, and a paternalistic attitude toward Africa, the argument was simple: to get Joseph Kony, the US must intervene and arm the Ugandan government.
Kony is a brutal man to be certain. The crimes of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) date back over a quarter century and are only slightly touched upon in the Invisible Children’s video. However, the crimes of Ugandan president Yoweri Museveni dwarf Kony’s. Whereas approximately 40,000 deaths can be attributed to Kony and the LRA, more than seven million can be attributed to Museveni via his brutality in Uganda and the genocides in Rwanda and the Congo.
Of course, Museveni is a favoured client of the US and is very much in line with western interests.
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