Who is Joseph Kony?
Joseph Kony is the world’s worst war criminal. In 1987 he took
over leadership of an existing rebel group and renamed it the Lord’s
Resistance Army (LRA).
The LRA has earned a reputation for its cruel and brutal tactics.
When Joseph Kony found himself running out of fighters, he started
abducting children to be soldiers in his army or “wives” for his
officers. The LRA is encouraged to rape, mutilate, and kill
civilians–often with blunt weapons.
The LRA is no longer active in northern Uganda (where it
originated) but it continues its campaign of violence in Democratic
Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, and South Sudan. In its
26-year history, the LRA has abducted more than 30,000 children and
displaced at least 2.1 million people.
What is the goal of KONY 2012?
Invisible Children has been working for 9 years to end Africa’s
longest-running armed conflict. U.S. military advisers are currently
deployed in Central Africa on a “time-limited” mission to stop Kony and
disarm the LRA. If Kony isn’t captured this year, the window will be
gone.
We are taking action to ensure these two things:
1) That Joseph Kony is known as the World’s Worst War Criminal.
2) That the U.S. military advisers support the Ugandan Army until
Kony has been captured and the LRA has been completely disarmed. They
need to follow through all the way and finish what they have started.
Why are we making Joseph Kony "famous"?
Invisible Children’s KONY 2012 campaign aims to make Joseph Kony
famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and
set a precedent for international justice. In this case, notoriety
translates to public support. If people know about the crimes that Kony
has been committing for 26 years, they will unite to stop him.
Secondly, we want Kony to be famous so that when he is stopped,
he will be a visible, concrete example of international justice. Then
other war criminals will know that their mass atrocities will not go
unnoticed or unpunished.
Contact
General questions:
info@invisiblechildren.com // 619.562.2799
Media inquiries:
pr@invisiblechildren.com
For more information about Invisible Children, visit our main website:
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