What You Need to Know About Joseph Kony

When used properly, Twitter can be a great vehicle for social and political movements. Usually it is full of Biebers and relationship talk, but this morning there was a trending topic uniting all of Twitter for one common goal:

#StopJosephKony.

Joseph Kony is the leader of the Lord’s Resistance Army, a militant Christian group founded in 1987 to overthrow the government in Uganda through terrorism. Their goal is to govern the people by the Ten Commandments.

The LRA’s objectives are as follows:

a) To remove dictatorship and stop the oppression of our people.

b) To fight for the immediate restoration of competitive multi-party democracy in Uganda.

c) To see and end to gross violation of human rights and dignity of Ugandans.

d) To ensure the restoration of peace and security in Uganda.

e) To ensure unity, sovereignty and economic prosperity beneficial to all Ugandans

f) To bring to an end to the repressive policy of deliberate marginalization of groups of people who may not agree with the NRA ideology.

Yet none of their actions have brought unity or peace, nor does their history resemble anything Christ-like in the slightest.

The LRA has kidnapped thousands of children from different villages to fight in their wars, sexually enslaved women and children, and have tried their damndest to tear Uganda apart. Other crimes the LRA has committed include rape, murder, maiming, and in some cases, cannibalism.

Kony has led his followers to believe that, through stealing,  killing and terrorizing, they are doing the work of the Holy Spirit. Kony acts as the “spokesperson” for God, and has convinced his soldiers to kill in the name of God for 26 years.

26 years of murder, pillaging, and violence. In the name of God.

That’s why organizations like the Invisible Children are so important. Invisible Children “uses film, creativity and social action to end the use of child soldiers in Joseph Kony’s rebel war and restore LRA-affected communities in Central Africa to peace and prosperity.”  Co-founder and filmmaker Jason Russell sat for an interview in late February with All Africa to discuss the need to inform the world about Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army:

I’ve been inspired by Lauren Hill s quote, Fantasy is what people want but reality is what they need. It s the sense that people don t want to think about war or think about child trafficking and it makes sense, I don t want to think about it either.  But if you can do something to influence the end of violence or tragedy in the world, then you should do it.

Russel also explained how he does not want to see Kony executed for violating human rights, but wants to see him  go on trial for his heinous crimes:

The dream would be for Kony to be captured, not killed, and brought to the International Criminal Court to face trial. The world would know about his crimes and they would watch the trial play out on an international level, seeing a man face justice who got away with abducting children, raping little girls, and mutilating people s faces for 26 years.

For more information on KONY 2012, a documentary depicting the war crimes of Joseph Kony, visit here.