For the past three weeks, I have been receiving questions from all over North America and Europe asking about Invisible Children's invitation to Diaspora Ugandans for a meeting. One constant inquiry was why Ugandans were getting this invitation from third and fourth parties, and not from the Acholi community in San Diego, the city of the Invisible Children (hereinafter IC) world headquarters.
On the advice of the members of Acholi community in San Diego, and in consultation with Ugandans in San Diego, Los Angeles, New York, Boston, Seattle, Toronto, London, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Kampala, Gulu, Johannesburg, and Washington, DC, I am writing to you to state the following:
The Acholi community in southern California find no possible reason to talk to the IC at this time. We have been trying for the last 8 years to work collaboratively with IC to tell the world the true story of the humanitarian catastrophes occurring in Acholiland, greater northern Uganda, the whole of Uganda, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi and some parts of South Sudan. The IC has not only effectively avoided us, but on the several occasions when we did meet with their founders, they mocked our efforts to inform the world about what the NRM dictatorship and Lt. General Yoweri Museveni has been doing to Acholi and Acholis, Uganda and Ugandans, Congo and Congolese, Rwanda and Rwandese, Burundi and Burundians.
In July 2004, soon after the initial IC documentary came out, FPA made it the centerpiece of its annual international peace conference in Toronto, Canada. Mr. Jason Russell and Mr. Laren Poole travelled to Toronto to show the documentary and answer delegates' questions. The Acholi didn't just welcome the documentary; we hailed it as a fantastic coup for human rights advocacy and a signal exposé of Lt. Gen. Museveni's hitherto silent destruction of the Acholi and the people of northern Uganda.
When Mr. Russell and Mr. Poole returned from Toronto, they took the same documentary to the US State department. The State Department advised them to remove segments that portrayed the government of Uganda in a bad light from the documentary if they wanted to return to Uganda safely. IC then took the now State Department-edited documentary to the Ugandan Embassy in Washington, DC. The Ugandan Ambassador Sempala again edited it and removed anything that mentioned or alluded to Uganda government, UPDF, Lt. Gen. Museveni or NRM complicities in the Northern Uganda tragedy. What remained of the documentary was nothing but a propaganda piece for the government of Uganda.
This was when FPA, CEGUN, Acholi Diaspora Association, several chapters of Amnesty International in southern California, and their respective supporters started to vigorously oppose IC. This was also when IC started a constant stream of travels to Uganda that continues to today. The three filmmakers started going to Uganda as official guests of the First Lady and Dictator Lt. Gen. Museveni. They began to tell the world only what Museveni wanted them to, including accusing Diaspora Acholi en masse as supporters of the "terrorist" LRA. FPA and CEGUN began travelling all over southern California to attend IC events whenever we could and made every effort to tell attendees the rest of the sad Ugandan story. We were very successful at this as many never even knew there was another side of the story because IC consistently refused to tell it.
Four years ago, Mr. Jason Russell invited me to meet with him, Bobby Bailey and the IC lawyer to explore collaboration possibilities. I represented Friends for Peace in Africa (FPA), International Working Committee (IWC), Campaign to End Genocide in Uganda--NOW! (CEGUN) and members of the Acholi community in Southern California at this meeting. At some point during the meeting, Mr. Russell looked me straight in the face and stated the following:
a. he knew what Museveni was doing to the Acholi people more than I did;
b. He and his troupe of IC staffers and volunteers had been in nearly all the camps all over Acholiland; they saw with their own eyes what tragedy the Uganda security forces were committing against the Acholi
c. He knew for a fact that Museveni was conducting a genocide project in Acholiland but blaming the LRA for it.
d. he knew first hand that the UPDF soldiers were massacring, raping, torturing, robbing, and mutilating people in and outside the concentration camps
e. IC could not tell that story to the world because it needed free access to Uganda to accomplish its mission.
f. The IC had the ears and eyes of the American youth, and soon the world youth. IC was going to change Uganda first, then African, then the United States, and finally the world. If we were smart, we would stop fighting them and instead join them in telling their one-sided story. IC had the money that we didn't, and we could not possibly stop them.
If IC had opted to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth, hundreds of thousands of deaths in Uganda, South Sudan, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC and Central African Republic would have been avoided. We believe that if the IC had decided to use the success it has registered since 2004--including the Kony2012 virus--to tell the world what was really happening in Uganda and who was actually behind it all, the NRM dictatorship would have folded as far back as 2004. By commission and omission, the IC is therefore directly and indirectly complicit in all the 'excess' deaths in these countries that are not directly attributable to the LRA.
From our standpoint, we see no other reason why IC should all of a sudden want to talk to Diaspora Ugandans now--after avoiding then for 8 years--except as a ploy to further their agenda, squelch the effects of withering criticisms Kony2012 has generated worldwide, and show the world that it actually cares about people in Uganda, DRC, CAR and the Great Lakes region. We will not allow IC to use us again. We are all too familiar with being used. Lt. Gen. Museveni has done it for the past 25 years.
We not only turn down IC request for a meeting, but also advise that any Diaspora Ugandan individual, group or community that sees any possible reason to meet with IC should rethink and consult more before engaging it in any dialogue. If any individual, group or community cannot heed this advise and instead opts to meet with IC anyway, we then ask the following:
a. the meeting should have an AGENDA, and a reasonable time given to have it well-publicized amongst Diaspora Ugandan communities around the world.
b. The main item in the agenda should be IC's explicit commitment to making and publicizing a similar video it shall call "Museveni2012" in which it highlights (i) atrocities in the concentration camps committed by government security forces, (ii) the "kadogos"--child soldiers in Museveni's NRA and UPDF, (iii) NRM government's active military and logistical support for the LRA since 1993, and (iv) IC's regret for not telling the truth from the beginning.
c. IC must accept and promote Ugandan solutions for Ugandan problems (and African solutions for African problems) by, amongst other things, vigorously denouncing militarization of the Ugandan, DRC, CAR conflicts, and promoting EFFECTIVE resumption of the Juba Peace Talks.
d. IC must, from now on, consult with Acholi and Uganda traditional leaders and elders, Acholi and Community leaders from Diaspora Uganda, and legitimate political leaders in Uganda before prescribing and implementing solutions to our problems; and lastly
e. An apology to Diaspora Ugandans for ignoring our pleas, to the families of those who died in Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, DRC, CAR because IC refused to tell the truth from the outset, and to Acholi cultural, religious, and political leaders for misrepresenting the conflict to the world.
If you have any question or need clarification on anything stated herein, please do not hesitate to contact me. The Acholi community in southern California and FPA have designated me as their point person in our struggle against the Invisible Children.
Thank you,
Charlie C. Lakony
