Invisible Children

Infobox Film
name = Invisible Children: Rough Cut


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director = Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole
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released = 2003
runtime = 55 min. 9 seconds.
country = United States
language = English
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"Invisible Children: The Rough Cut" is a film about the plight of child soldiers and night commuters in northern Uganda. The documentary was filmed in 2003 when three young men from Southern California—Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey and Laren Poole (then 24, 21, and 20)—traveled to Sudan "to find a story".

Instead, their adventure took them into the depths of northern Uganda where they discovered thousands of people affected by the brutality and attacks of a rebel group known as the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA). The documentary chronicles their experience as young Americans learning firsthand about a conflict largely unknown to the international community, while also informing audiences about the great humanitarian crisis of child soldiers.

The film was screened for the first time on June 22, 2004 at the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego to friends and family of the filmmakers. Soon after, students across the United States were passing along DVDs of the documentary and wanted to know how to help the children in northern Uganda.

Out of the overwhelming public response, the filmmakers co-founded the nonprofit Invisible Children Inc. – an awareness and development organization.

Jason Russell, Bobby Bailey, and Laren Poole remain instrumental in the success and creativity of the nonprofit and are currently working on the feature film, tentatively scheduled to release in theaters in 2009.

History of the war in Uganda

The war in northern Uganda has been called the most neglected humanitarian emergency in the world today. For the past 23 years, the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda have been waging a war that has left nearly two million innocent civilians caught in the middle. The government has failed to protect its citizens from this rebel militia that has murdered mothers and buried the young, leaving an entire generation of youth that has never known peace.

The LRA rebel movement can be traced back to a woman named Alice Auma (later known as Alice Lakwena), a spirit medium for the Acholi. In the 1980s, Auma believed the Holy Spirit spoke to her and ordered her to overthrow the Ugandan government for being unjust to the Acholi. Auma and her followers, known as the Holy Spirit Movement, gained momentum as resentment toward the government increased. When Auma was exiled and no clear leader of the movement was left, Joseph Kony, who claimed to be Auma’s cousin, took control and transformed Auma’s rebel army into the LRA.

Kony’s LRA did not receive the same support as the Holy Spirit Movement because of their extreme tactics. With dwindling support for their cause and heightened government offensives, the rebels resorted to abducting children and indoctrinating them into their ranks. It is estimated that more than 90% of the LRA’s troops were abducted as children.

In 1996, as a response to the LRA attacks in the villages, the Ugandan government forcibly evicted thousands from their homes and relocated them into overcrowded internally displaced person camps in hopes of providing protection. But over a decade later roughly one million individuals live in these camps and struggle to survive among the effects of abject poverty, rampant disease, and near-certain starvation.

In recent years more and more international attention has been focused on this crisis. In 2001, the USA Patriot Act officially declared the LRA to be a terrorist organization, a huge step in drawing attention to the conflict and the atrocities committed by the LRA. In 2004, Congress passed the [http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/laws/108/publ283.108.pdf/ Northern Uganda Crisis Response Act] , the first piece of American legislation to address this disaster. And in 2005, the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued arrest warrants for Joseph Kony and four of his top commanders.

Pressure from the international community (especially from the EU and Canada) plus a strong desire to realize peace has brought the Ugandan government and the LRA to the negotiating table on numerous occasions, though they have yet to find a peaceful resolution. The most recent talks commenced in Juba, Sudan in July 2006, and a Cessation of Hostilities Agreement was signed the following month. In July 2007, in response to an increased concern for peace in northern Uganda by the American people, the US appointed Tim Shortley, Senior Advisor for Conflict Resolution to Assistant Secretary of State Jendayi Frazer, with his immediate focus on northern Uganda; this action solidified the US commitment to end this conflict peacefully. That same year, Britain solidified their commitment to peace by allocating £70 million in aid, while Germany committed to increasing aid to Uganda by 25% by October 2010. Canada later became more than an international supporter of the peace process in February 2008 by joining the peace talks as an official observer (though the Canadian officer on the ground has since been removed from the region).

At this point in time, the Cessation of Hostilities Agreement has expired, the Final Peace Agreement (FPA) has yet to be signed and rebel leader Joseph Kony’s intentions have yet to be clarified. Without any resolution to the war, many of the displaced are hesitant to return home without any assurance that they will not be displaced once again.

In light of this ambiguity, Invisible Children Inc. is committed to seeking sustainable solutions to foster an environment that encourages peace. They are supporting and equipping a generation ravaged by war so Uganda can finally know peace. Their programs address the need for access to education and economic development through three innovative programs on the ground.

Uganda today

Since "Invisible Children: Rough Cut" was filmed in 2003, night commuting has ended for the children of northern Uganda. For the past two years, Uganda has been closer to peace than ever before. From June 2006 to March 2008 in Juba, Sudan, the Lord’s Resistance Army and the Government of Uganda engaged in a series of peace talks in order to end the conflict. These peace talks, supported by special envoys from the United States and other nations, allowed for the longest period of peace in northern Uganda’s 23-year war.

The Juba, Sudan peace talks developed with hopeful constancy, and concluded in March of 2008 with the Final Peace Agreement (FPA) ready for the signature of Joseph Kony and President Museveni. However, in April of 2008, Kony twice failed to appear and sign the FPA and officially ended the Juba talks mediated by the Southern Sudanese government. Joseph Kony’s stated reasons for not signing the FPA were a vague understanding of the treaty’s systems regarding post-conflict justice and an apprehension toward International Criminal Court warrants for him and four other LRA leaders. Since the collapse of the peace talks, the LRA has been active in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic and Southern Sudan, drawing widespread disapproval from the international community and igniting a new urgency to end what has become a complex regional conflict.

Over the last two years, an estimated 800,000 of the 1.8 million displaced returned to their homes, but that leaves one million people currently living in the Internally Displaced Person (IDP) camps. While the majority desires to return home, the issues surrounding their return are complex. Some have been displaced for more than a decade, and their former way of life is all but gone. Access to clean water, economic opportunities, health centers, and education are a pressing concern for all, and even more so for the many who contemplate returning to resource-barren villages.

ee also

*Invisible Children Inc.
*Schools for Schools
*Displace Me
*Global Night Commute
*Uganda

External links

* [http://www.invisiblechildren.com/home.php Invisible Children] official website
* [http://www.wreckedfortheordinary.com/index.asp?filename=displace-me-my-night-as-an-invisible-child Wrecked for the Ordinary - "Displace Me: My Night as an Invisible Child"] Article live from the Invisible Children displacement camp.
* [http://www.wreckedfortheordinary.com/index.asp?filename=discovering-the-unseen "Invisible Children: Discovering the Unseen"] Online article about the movement..