Joseph Kony - A Misguided Warlord And The Heroes That Are Attempting To Bridle Him.

Joseph Kony   Joseph Kony is a rebel leader in the East African country of Uganda. Kony is the leader of rebel group Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) and he is infamous for making use of guerilla warfare to spread his beliefs. The LRA was a movement that began with popular support but over time turned to religious extremism with the intention of "cleansing" the Acholi tribe. The group intended to convert Uganda into a theocracy, that is, a government led by religious beliefs. The Lord's Resistance Army is notorious for working with child soldiers to fight their fights and for taking ladies as slaves. Kony is wanted by the International Criminal court on suspicion of crimes of war. Inspite of the ICC indictment, he has managed to evade arrest since 2005. It is considered that he is in hiding in the northern parts of Uganda or inside of the Democratic Republic of Congo. History   Kony was born in 1961 to two farmers in a village acknowledged as Odek. He spent his early life as an altar boy. He is said to have stopped going to church at the age of 15, and became the apprentice of a village witch doctor. Most accounts of his child hood depict him as someone with a rebellious nature. He sprung to prominence as an activist for the rights of the Acholi people. The Acholi felt oppressed after a coup saw the removal of one of their own, president Tito Okello, from power. In 1987, Kony managed to assemble a small army and carry out a raid in the town of Gulu. Divisions inside of the newly formed military government saw many soldiers join Kony's army as rebels. The initial strategy of Kony's army was religious fundamentalism but this soon changed to military warfare. Kony claims that he has had consultations with the Holy Spirit, and that he directly received guidance from the Holy Spirit on how to fight the war. He and his army used "spiritual water" to guard on their own during fight. The worst of Kony's crimes is use of children against fight, and he employed brutality to recruit them into his ranks. However, he is on record as having defended his motions claiming that he obtained instructions from the Ten Commandments. Attempts to Stop Kony   Kony and the Lord's Resistance Army have been in the jungle and have confronted tough action against them. The Ugandan military has been at the forefront in trying to quash the rebel movement. The war has endured numerous years, often with brutal results. a number of attempts at peace treaties have also been made, but always ended up aborting. The United States has also been active in the fight against Kony, with President Bush and President Obama both signing legislation related to Kony in 2008 and in 2010 respectively. Although no troops from the United States military have been directly involved, they are mandated to provide logistical and surveillance support. Around 100 troops are currently in Uganda helping the authorities to stop Kony. Kony 2012   The Kony 2012 campaign became viral in early March of 2012. Starting from a simple video, it became a widely talked about subject, seeking to "make Kony famous." Kony 2012 was a short film made by a charity group identified as The Invisible Children. through the movie team sought to popularize their Stop Kony movement. The objective was to make identified Kony's war crimes such as use of child soldiers and to world leaders and the international community help bring the indicted rebel leader to justice. Kony 2012 videos became viral, spreading over sociable networking sites on the Net and attaining thousands and thousands of views in the Web file sharing site regarded as Youtube. The "hash tag" Kony 2012 quickly began trending in Twitter- the the micro-blogging website- indicating that the subject was a topic of discussion among many people. The Kony 2012 motion has however come below as much criticism as it has been praised. Most critics claim that the Stop Kony movement did not give an accurate representation of Kony's acts of human rights violations. More criticism arose from questions of the Invisible Children's accountability to the actual cause they stated to be combating for. Nonetheless, Kony 2012 and Stop Kony got the world speaking, and brought before the eyes of the world a rebel leader whom few knew.