Suffering In Uganda

Joseph Kony, a Ugandan warlord abducts children. With the help of his Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), he forces children to join the military. Invisible Children, a US-based company, created a viral YouTube video called “Kony 2012” that opposed Kony’s and the LRA’s actions. John Naughton wrote an editorial praising “Kony 2012” in the Observer. Children from other countries enlist unwillingly in the military as well.

Also, in an interview conducted by Journeyman Pictures, the leader of the LRA, Joseph Kony lied about abducting villages. He was trying to cover up for the atrocities that he and his troops had caused. In the video, Kony addresses, “The LRA has never been involved in any abductions, rapes or mutilations. That's just Museveni’s propaganda.” He was blaming others for his wrongdoings. Throughout the interview, Kony blamed it on “Museveni's propaganda” four

The Lord’s Resistance Army insurgency is an ongoing guerrilla campaign that started in 1987. The Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebel group was led by Joseph Kony. Kony proclaims himself as the “spokesperson” of god. His objective is to overthrow the Ugandan government, establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments and Acholi tradition.

This warlord of Uganda is just another Hitler of our world. Kony is a man with a mission to stay in power. He will do all he can to maintain a superior status.Kony has not committed these crimes himself, but has become the rising leader for Lord's Resistance Army

In recent times, the media has highlighted the genocide that has been occurring in Darfur, Sudan. Darfur, Sudan is a country roughly the size of the state of Texas (Darfur Scores, n.d.). Genocide is the systematic killing of an entire ethnic group of people from a national, ethnic, or religious group, or an attempt to do away with them all (Darfur Scores, n.d.). Beginning around 2003, according to Darfur Scores (n.d.), “the Sudanese government in Khartoum and the government-sponsored Janjaweed militia have used rape, displacement, organized starvation, threats against aid workers and mass murder. Violence, disease, and displacement continue to kill thousands of innocent Darfurians every month.”

In 2003 there was a mass slaughter and and rape of the people in Darfur. This happened to so many people like men, women, and children. Many people suffered from the mass torturing. This is known as a genocide. The genocide has been going on for about 13 years and is still going on today. This genocide is the first genocide in the 21st century. The darfur genocide was gruesome. Since the Darfur bloodshed was gruesome and had people attacking, it led the United States and Court to believe it was considered a genocide. Darfur is a horrible time in history for so many people. The Janjaweed and the Sudanese forces attacked hundreds of villages in Darfur. The genocide is what caused so many people to suffer from the United States, court, crimes

The Lord’s Resistance Army, or the LRA, is Africa’s most violent armed group and also the oldest. Joseph Kony formed the LRA in 1986 in northern Uganda, to fight against the Ugandan Government. At the height of the conflict, about two million people were displaced in northern Uganda. Since the LRA never gained public support, they turned to forcible recruitment to build up their army (“The Lord’s Resistance Army”). Kony, and the LRA believe that Uganda should be governed and run based on the 10 Commandments. They rely on the application of terror in order to keep their campaign alive. The war in Uganda being

About 2.3 million Darfurians have fled their homes and communities and now reside in displaced person camps in Darfur. It has started spilling over into neighboring countries such as Chad and the Central African Republic. There are still over 200,000 more Darfurians living in refugee camps in Chad. Immediately after the Janjaweed entered the conflict, the rape of women and young girls, often by multiple militiamen and often throughout entire nights, began to be reported at a staggering rate. Children as young as 2 years old were reported victims, while mothers were assaulted in front of their children.Young women were attacked so violently that they were unable to walk following the attack. “.. These refugees and IDPs are almost entirely dependent on the United Nations and other humanitarian organizations for their basic needs – food, water, shelter, and health care.”(The Genocide in Darfur). The Darfurians that are still living in their country are feeling as though they are under a constant threat or being tortured, raped and murdered. In October 2004, 7,400 troops and personnel were sent by the U.N peacekeeping forces to Darfur. In the summer of 2007, outbreaks of violence between some of the Arab tribes that worked together as part of the Janjaweed began to occur more frequently. The United Nations recently reported

2003 marked the beginning of the Darfur Genocide. It has consisted of some of the most appalling treatment and murder of the innocent citizens of Darfur. It also quickly became clear why the government never stepped in. A group known as the Janjaweed, which ironically enough translates to ‘devils on horseback,’ has been at the head of the genocide. They are armed and funded by the government. Their disturbing actions consist of destroy the people by burning villages, looting money, polluting water, and worst of all, the murdering, raping, and torturing of men, woman, and children. It continues there today.

Who is the Lord’s Resistance Army? The LRA is a rebel Christian cult that has “terrorized” Uganda for nearly thirty years. In 1986, the LRA began as an “evolution of the Holy Spirit Movement.” Led by Alice Lakwena, the Holy Spirit Movement was a rebellion against the oppression of North Uganda by their president, Yoweri Museveni.(invisible children, 2014) Claiming that she was possessed by the spirit of a long-dead Italian soldier, Lakwena was seen unfit to remain the leader of the Holy Spirit Movement. When she was exiled in 1987, Joseph Kony, her supposed cousin, took over the group, renaming it the Lord’s Resistance Army. With hopes of bringing down the Ugandan

The L. R. A. still exists. He changes his tactics often, so it is very hard to catch him. This story of all those childrens made me simply speechless and I hope it made you too. Over the years the awarness of this situation has grown, but it is still not finished because Kony still isn’t done justice! You might think rigth know, yes it is very sad that those children has to live like that, but what can I do about it? Who am I to end a war? But let me tell you, who are you not too. You can make a change, you can give money to an organisation or you can help spread the story of all those children all over the world. There is power in numbers, if everyone knows it there has to be done

In the movie Invisible Children the viewer is taken on a horrific journey through the lives of fearful children soldiers in Uganda. Fighting a war that has been going on for generations with the resulting goal to raise a rebel power against the government. “The LRA began as an evolution of ‘the Holy Spirit Movement’ - a rebellion against President Yoweri’s oppression of the north of Uganda, led by Alice Lakwena. When Alice Lakwena was exiled, Joseph Kony took over, changing the name of the group to the Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA. As the group lost regional support, he quickly started a trend of self-preservation that would come to characterize the rebel group, stealing supplies and abducting children to fill his ranks”(History).

Though, despite mostly being a advertising scam, it did bring attention to the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and its leader, Joseph Kony, who would go on to be known as one of the most wanted criminals on the planet. He built an empire by forming the biggest child soldier militia that would help him commit countless war crimes. In addition to documentaries, I've read a lot of news stories about Kony, short biographies of victims, etc. One story in particular just struck me as a perfect example, and that is the story of Norman Okello. Norman was just like any other child, and he had a family that loved him dearly. All of this would be taken away from him, and all of it at age 12, the age LRA prefers to recruit

They wanted a system that would shrink the divide between the state and the Acholi people. In 2000, the people who were victimized in this conflict requested that the government passes an Amnesty Act. Under this act, anyone who renounces violence can return to their town with fears of repercussions (ICC 145). This shows a sense of reconciliation amongst the Ugandan people to those members of the LRA, and an understanding if their situation. By 2004, more than 5000 former LRA soldiers had applied for amnesty. Many of them took their story to main radio stations in the Gulu district in order to encourage others to apply (ICC, 145). This was met with backlash from Kony, stating that this was a threat to the LRA, and decided to attack a refugee camp in Pagak, the home of a former LRA commander (ICC,

The country known as Uganda was once a British colony just like the majority of its neighbors in East Africa. It was initially intruded into by the Arab traders led by Speke and the British explorers led by Stanley in 1862 and 1875 respectively. They both paid homage to Mutesa who was the King (kabaka) of the Buganda. Uganda remained predominantly under the colony of the British until 1962 when they were granted internal self government by Britain (History World, 2011).