A Voice for Invisible Children

Twenty-three years is no small change when it comes to war. In Northern Uganda, that’s how long the rebel Lord’s Resistance Army has been terrorizing the population. In that time, almost 30,000 children have been abducted by the LRA, which over the years have formed what is believed to be ninety percent of the militia’s forces. These children are forced to be soldiers and to commit atrocities such as murder, rape, and mutilation. To protect the people of Northern Uganda, the government forced them to move into camps for protection. The conditions in these camps are hardly an improvement—people are dying from disease and starvation every day. It is estimated that 2.2 million people are internally displaced at the moment.

Although there have been numerous attempts to resolve the conflict through peace negotiations, Joseph Kony, the pseudo-messiah leader of the LRA, continuously backs out, most recently at the 2006-2007 Juba peace talks. These negotiations were the closest Uganda has ever come to a resolution and came into being largely through the actions of a U.S.-based nonprofit organization, Invisible Children. Invisible Children not only works to establish peace in Northern Uganda and bring home the child soldiers, but also to rehabilitate areas struck by poverty, providing education and economic opportunity for the people affected by this conflict.

U.Va. hosts a Chapter of Invisible Children, and two weeks ago, they held a screening of the most recent updates on the conflict. I was surprised to hear that a) there is a bill in Congress right now that would require President Obama to implement a plan of action to stop the LRA’s rampant violence and to commit the U.S. to advisory aid in the reconciliation and recovery process; and b) Invisible Children has started a petition to have Obama make a formal address by Christmas committing the United States to lead an international effort to arrest Joseph Kony. Obama would sign and implement into law the LRA Disarmament and Northern Uganda Recovery Act, and commit to the recovery and rehabilitation of the areas of Central Africa affected by this conflict. Invisible Children needs 250,000 signatures by December 15th. Additionally, on November 15th, Invisible Children will establish plans for a nationwide call-in day on which supporters will call their Congressmen to press them to act and ensure that the Obama administration works to rescue the child soldiers.

Previous protests conducted by Invisible Children include “Displace Me,” and “Rescue Me”, their biggest event yet, which called for people to “abduct” themselves in major cities around the world until a celebrity or government official came to their “rescue,” garnering media and government attention and support. The attention gained from these events contributed largely to the appointment by the U.S. State Department of Tim Shortley as a Senior Advisor for Conflict Resolution.

You might not be able to see through these oppressed children, but for all intensive purposes, they are invisible. The qualifications of being a member of the human race don’t include geographic origin. You can bet that if these children were Americans the U.N. would sure as hell have nipped this problem in the bud faster than Obama can win the Nobel peace prize. Even now, when it is being shoved in their face, the world still hesitates. So far, fifty thousand people have signed the petition—you could be one of them.