Campaign against Ugandan military leader sweeps Internet

A video calling for the arrest of the fugitive leader, Joseph Kony, of the Lord’s Resistance Army militia(a group known for kidnapping children and forcing them to work) in Uganda, has swept across the Internet, attracting a wave of support on Twitter and Facebook.

The 30-minute YouTube video was uploaded on the internet via facebook and twitter on Tuesday and so far has been viewed almost 40 million times.

Also,tweets about Kony have become the No. 1 trending topic worldwide on Twitter.

However, the video has drawn mixed reactions from within Uganda, where many civilians distrust the military and government forces are often accused of committing the same atrocities as Kony’s fighters.

On the other hand, Uganda’s armed forces, which have been hunting the fugitive leader for more than two decades, welcomed the film and its massive viewership, saying it would “help us to expose who Kony is.”

Uganda Peoples Defence Force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Felix Kulayigye said “I wish that it had come earlier…we are confident that we will finally catch up with Kony soon”

He added he had last seen Kony in South Sudan’s Western Equatoria state in 2007 when the fugitive leader had attended abortive peace talks before disappearing again into the bush.

Kulayigye acknowledged the Ugandan military had only managed to drive Kony out of Ugandan territory after more than two decades of killings and kidnappings by the LRA.

“We should have stopped him, that’s a failure certainly,” he said.