08.03.12 - ICC/LRA - CAMPAIGN FOR THE CAPTURE OF JOSEPH KONY

8 March 2012 By

The Hague, March 8, 2012 (FH) - The American organisation Invisible Children has launched a big campaign via the Internet for the capture of Ugandan rebel leader Joseph Kony. The "Kony 2012" campaign calls on people around the world to write to policymakers and to plaster Kony's image on the walls of western capitals on the night of April 20, 2012. Two other organisations, the Enough Project and Resolve, are also behind the campaign.

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"If my son were kidnapped and forced to kill, it would be all over the news," says Jason Russel, co-director of Invisible Children and author of a campaign video. "So we're making Kony world news."

On March 7, 2012, "Kony 2012" was breaking records on the social networking site Twitter, while the video registered 4.2 million viewings. The website offers downloadable kits at $20 each including posters showing Kony's face, with Osama Bin Laden and Adolph Hitler in the background.

Kony was indicted by the International Criminal Court in 2005 for crimes against humanity, along with other leaders of his Lord's Resistance Army (LRA). He and his troops, made up partly of kidnapped children, are still on the run and now spreading terror in parts of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan.

In October 2011, the Obama government in Washington decided to send 100 US military advisers to support regional armies in their efforts to track down the LRA. The Invisible Children campaign aims to ensure that the US advisers stay and provide all the necessary technical support until Kony is caught, and aims for his capture this year.

SM/ER/JC