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Este é do Friends for Peace in Africa em resposta a um utilizador de um outro forum que frequento:
<<I was forwarded your inquiry about the newly release Invisible Children's (IC) campaign video. I just finished watching the video. It is a marvelous piece of propaganda about a relatively small problem in the world.
1. That the LRA committed and are probably still committing atrocities is true and it should be condemned by all peace loving people. However, this does not mean that everyone who propagandizes about it really has the interest of the people concerned. So, the video has to be looked at with a critical eye and in relationship to what else has been going on in the region. In this regard, I appreciate you seeking to know other points of view.
2. Historically, we had had problems with the Invisible Children because whenever we called them out on peddling distorted information, they began to shy away from us. They wanted to claim to be the authority on the 25 year war in northern Uganda. Anyone who would question them was avoided at all costs because it would make them look bad.
3. The invisible Children are like the Ugandan government under the leadership of President Museveni. They have been milking the LRA like a tick sucking the blood of a cow. They do not want the problem solved because it is a pretty good cash cow. Without the horrific narrative of the LRA, there would be no Invisible Children. Without the LRA, the Museveni regime would not have a receptive ear in Washington DC in the last 25 years. Every peace effort was sabotaged by the regime in order to keep the war going so that the regime can claim that it was still fighting international terrorism. In this regard, the Invisible Children have been working with the government of Uganda to fan the LRA flame. They were met by the President and other officials who objected to the original Invisible Children video after it was first screened in 2004. Since then, the two sides have found a gold mine in the LRA, literally and figuratively. You can also add Resolve Uganda whose officials have been able to gain access to Congress in name of fighting the LRA.
Those in the government tell us that there are only about 200 LRA soldiers. One has to ask why the LRA has not yet been eliminated using a combined 250,000 troops of the UN, DRC, CAR, South Sudan and Uganda who are roaming the region? Add on to that 100 US troops and all the millions of $ provided by the US for logistics, transport, food etc. Why or how come? The answer is that the major players, namely Museveni do not really want this problem to go away for its cash cow value. More recently Ugandan troops have been accused of looting diamond, timber and other resources from CAR and also of raping women. Mark you, Ugandan troops were accused of the came crimes in the DRC and South Sudan. Does the IC video tell us such information? Of course not. It sells better to propagate the narrative of how the LRA cuts of lips, ears, rapes young girls etc.
4. There are a lot of images of mutilated faces, human skulls and others flashed on the screen in the video. They look impressive, but they tell us nothing about who really committed those crimes. The fact of the matter is that many of the crimes were committed by the Uganda government and blamed on the LRA. Because the LRA had no access to the media, whatever the government said became accepted as the truth. The skulls could have come from Luwero where in the 1908s the Museveni rebels called NRA would dress up as government soldiers and kill villagers, run away and come back dressed as rebels supposedly to save the people from government soldiers. After the 1980s war, the Museveni regime gathered some skulls and invited the international press to show them the skulls of people supposedly killed by the then government. Likewise, the skulls could have come from Rwanda, the remains of people killed during the genocide in 1994. Can you and I really tell where the skulls came from by looking at the video?
5. it is true that the Invisible Children did rehabilitate a few schools in Uganda and are paying school fees for some children, but relative to the amount of money they collect from donors, it is peanuts. The few schools they built or rehabilitated and the students they support are a good bait to keep the money spigot open. They have to spend a little to make more.
6. If the Invisible Children are serious about fighting injustices in Northern Uganda, let alone in Uganda as a whole or the world, they would have understood and accepted the fact that the real cause of injustices is the dictatorship in Uganda. The LRA is nothing but a symptom of what is wrong in Uganda. Where was the Invisible Children when almost 2 million people were incarcerated in the so-called protected villages or Internally Displaced People's camps (IDP) where people were dying more of preventable causes than the LRA ever killed? This was part of a carefully hidden genocide against the people of Acholi. Where is the IC when it was revealed that the Museveni regime looted natural resources of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and fomenting ethnic cleansing for which Uganda government was found liable and judged to compensate the DRC by $10 billion by the International Court of Justice. Not a single cent has yet been paid. Even years after the LRA left Uganda, dictatorship has not diminished. Arbitrary arrests, torture, shooting, general violation of human rights, suppression of political rights to organize and demonstrate etc are still the order of the day. Corruption is rampant. Violent removal of peasants from their land after they had just returned from the IDPs camps by the government currently going on in Amuru District. The government does not obey its own laws.
7. While the people of Uganda acknowledge that the LRA committed some horrid atrocities, they now understand that the LRA had a reason to fight the Museveni regime. While the IC showed a few people urging the capture of Kony, you will be surprise to know that given what Museveni has been doing in Uganda, many people now say that they would give Kony a hero's welcome if he were to come back. Many people see him as someone who stood up to a tyrant. Their only regret is that he used the wrong approach to fight the regime.
8. Hidden in the new IC video's call to action is war. Many reasonable people do not think that a military approach is the solution to the problem of which the LRA is a symptom. Many of the stakeholders from Northern Uganda prefer a negotiated solution simply because the two sides are both accountable for the crimes against humanity which they have committed. It is not justice to hold one side accountable while the other side is left to roam freely. Now the LRA is in a survivor's mode. Had they been given a safe place to settle while a peaceful settlement is negotiated, none of the killing or looting the LRA does now would take place. Even if the LRA were to be eliminated, so long as conditions which give rise to rebellion (the corruption, political repression, suppression of dissent, land grabbing etc) go on in the country, it is just a matter of time that new rebel groups will spring up.
I can go on and on, but this will give you some of our views on the Invisible Children. Basically, they are using the LRA to benefit financially, promote their careers, and gain access to the corridor of powers in Washington while taking advantage of the generosity of young innocent minds in the schools. Let me know if you have more or specific questions.
Okot. >>
