A press release from the Office of Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni went out to the mass media with the headline "Response to International Discourse of LRA Activity." It comes on the heels of the release of the controversial and widely seen (over 80 million views in a week) "Stop Kony" video released by an organization called Invisible Children. The viral video campaign was created to draw global attention to Central African militia leader Joseph Kony, but has come under fire from critics both in the West and in Uganda.
Both the Americans questioning the Invisible Children's fundraising efforts and the Ugandan government have a point. In truth, Kony started his Lord's Resistance Army in the 1980s to rebel against Uganda's Army, which has been accused of numerous human rights abuses. President Museveni's statement strongly urges that "any awareness campaign fully takes into consideration the current realities of the situation." According to the press release, the LRA was successfully expelled from the country by the Ugandan Peoples Defense Forces in 2006 and are "a diminished and weakened group with numbers not exceeding 300."
With the Ugandan government admitting such a truth, how will Invisible Children explain its actions?
