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Friday, 30 March 2012

Building the First Line of Defense against Impunity: Podcast with Phakiso Mochochoko

LISTEN TO THE PODCAST HERE

Earlier this month the International Criminal Court (ICC) handed down its first verdict, finding former rebel leader Thomas Lubanga Dyilo guilty of conscripting and using child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

This historic verdict was over three years in the making, and comes just before the court celebrates its 10 year anniversary in July of this year. While this marks a critical milestone in the international justice movement, the court’s critics and supporters alike point out there is much room for improvement, not least in the length of time required for the ICC to deliver justice.

But the ICC is just a component of a larger system of international justice, notes Phakiso Mochochoko, head of the Jurisdiction, Complementarity, and Cooperation Division of the ICC, in ICTJ’s last podcast in our series on complementarity. In fact, “the first line of defense for ending impunity is that of states.”
Secretary-General Kofi Annan speaks at the opening ceremony of the signing of the Rome Statute establishing the International Criminal Court, Rome, 18/07/98. UN# 199398C UN/DPI/E/Schneider.
The Rome Statute "created a system of international justice, with national judicial systems being at the center of this as the first bulwark against impunity," he explains. “The ICC is intended to work with national judicial systems and to intervene only if and when such national judicial systems are either unwilling or unable generally to prosecute.”

Under this rubric, he says, a crucial part of the ICC’s mandate is to work with national judicial systems, ensuring they are able to carry out investigations and prosecutions of war crimes and crimes against humanity. We can look to the International Crimes Division of Uganda’s High Court as an example.

“We have worked with the Ugandan authorities, sharing our experiences and information with them and showing them at least how to handle cases of this magnitude. And this has resulted in the war crimes tribunal in Uganda being able to investigate and prosecute one of the criminals in Uganda.”

The global struggle against impunity relies on a frontline of national judicial systems willing and able to prosecute war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide. “We have talked enough about complementarity that there are enough people who understand it,” Mochochoko concludes. “It is now time for action.”

Source: http://ictj.org/news/building-first-line-defense-against-impunity-podcast-phakiso-mochochoko

Monday, 26 March 2012

Legal Actions against Argentine Officers who Tortured Conscripts during Malvinas War

Monday, March 26, 2012 - 08:15 UTC
MercoPress South Atlantic News Agency

The Buenos Aires Provincial Memory Commission, CMP, will present on Monday an appeal to the Argentine Supreme Court demanding that tortures and other ill treatments suffered by the Argentine conscripts during the Malvinas war by their own officers be considered ‘crimes against humanity’ and therefore imprescriptible.


“The question of the Malvinas war cannot be disassociated from the regime that produced it: the military dictatorship (1976/1983). Nor its illegal methods in the continent from those applied in the Islands”, said the Commission.

The CMP representatives including Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel are scheduled to attend at midday Monday the Tribunals Palace in Buenos Aires to make an Amicus Curiae (Friends of the Court) presentation in the case of human rights violations committed by Argentine officers during the Malvinas war.
Nobel Peace laureate Perez Esquivel
The initiative supports a recent request from the Criminal Chamber Prosecutor Javier De Luca who asked the Argentine Supreme Court to rule if tortures and other abuses denounced by Argentine soldiers against officers during the war must be considered crimes against humanity of war crimes.
The presentation includes almost a hundred cases involving Argentine Armed Forces officers, but the investigation was paralyzed once the Annulment Chamber argued that the crimes had prescribed.
Among the claims are cases of staking soldiers to the ground, deaths caused because of lack of food and even killings.

Last week President Cristina Fernandez received the ‘Rattenbach Report” which analyzes the political and military responsibilities of the Malvinas war. Originally elaborated after the conflict by a commission headed by General Benjamin Rattenbach, it was considered too crude and damning towards the commanding officers and then military caretaker president Reynaldo Bignone impeded its release.


Source: http://en.mercopress.com/2012/03/26/legal-actions-against-argentine-officers-who-tortured-conscripts-during-malvinas-war.

Thursday, 22 March 2012

Sri Lanka Ethnic Groups Divided over UN Resolution

Monday, 19 March 2012

Update: Historic Verdict Condemns Warlord, but Hague Court Limited

By Anthony Deutsch
THE HAGUE | Wed Mar 14, 2012 3:06pm EDT
The war crimes court at The Hague found Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga Dyilo guilty on Wednesday in its first ever ruling after a decade of work limited largely to Africa while major cases elsewhere remain beyond its reach.

The International Criminal Court convicted the little known militia leader of using child soldiers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But critics noted that deadlock among world powers means the ICC is not even investigating daily tales of atrocity emanating from the Syria of President Bashar al-Assad.

Another sitting head of state, Sudan's Omar al-Bashir, cocks a snook at a three-year-old arrest warrant. And big states including the United States, Russia and China, none of which accepts the jurisdiction of the Court, trade charges of hypocrisy over their own behavior in places like Iraq, Chechnya or Tibet.

Navi Pillay, a former ICC judge who now heads the U.N. human rights agency, hailed the first verdict in the court's 10-year existence as a "major milestone in the fight against impunity".
But her own agency has been forced to lock away evidence it has gathered against Syrian officials of crimes against humanity during the past year's crackdown on anti-Assad protests, due to the international stalemate in the U.N. Security Council, the only body empowered to order an ICC investigation on Syria.

Many in Congo, and on a continent long ravaged by men like him, welcomed that Lubanga, 51, had been brought to book for snatching boys and girls aged under 15 and forcing them to fight in a five-year jungle war that killed some 60,000 people in the east of the country around the turn of the century.

He will be sentenced only later, and has a month to appeal.

But some Africans grumbled the ICC does too little to hold to account others elsewhere, or is succeeding only in hitting the small fry, or losers like former Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo, who now sits in custody on the Dutch coast.

Watched among others by actress and human rights campaigner Angelina Jolie, Lubanga sat impassively in the dock in white robes and cap, having denied all charges. Yet one of his co-accused still serves as general in the Congolese army - a vivid reminder of the political limitations on the court.
Congolese warlord Thomas Lubanga is seen behind his lawyers in the courtroom of the International Criminal Court (ICC) at The Hague March 14, 2012.
 "SHIELDED FROM THE COURT"


It was set up to provide a permanent forum after ad hoc tribunals, inspired by the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders, were used to prosecute those responsible for war crimes in the former Yugoslavia and for the Rwandan genocide of the 1990s.

"Two decades ago, international justice was an empty threat," Pillay said. "Since then a great deal has been achieved and the coming of age of the ICC is of immense importance in the struggle to bring justice and deter further crimes."

But the ICC can work only with the assent of political leaders: "Is it going to give pause to Bashar al-Assad?" asked Reed Brody, counsel for Human Rights Watch, of the conviction of a man he called a "small fish" in Africa. "I don't think so."

"Have we seen atrocities fall off in the world? We only have to look at Syria to know it's not the case," he said, noting how veto-wielding Russia and China were blocking Western and Arab efforts to have the Security Council act against Assad.

That is the only way to initiate a prosecution, since Syria, like Russia and China but also the United States, is not a party to the Rome Statute, which created the Court in July 2002. While most countries have signed up, the ICC's big opponents see it as a threat to national sovereignty and to their global interests.

"It's not the fault of the ICC," said Brody, who established a reputation as a scourge of dictators during efforts to try Chile's Augusto Pinochet and Haiti's "Baby Doc" Duvalier. "It's the fault of the Security Council and of the world order ... the international justice system does not operate in a vacuum."

While welcoming the verdict against Lubanga, which may help set a precedent for other cases involving the recruitment of child soldiers, he added: "Those countries with political power and their allies have been shielded from the court."

While there has been talk among international jurists of trying to mount a case against Assad other Syrian officials in the national courts of, for example Spain, Britain or Belgium, which have asserted global jurisdiction for crimes against humanity, there seems little immediate prospect of that.
Assad and his aides also run the risk that defeat could bring prosecution at home, as happened to Saddam Hussein in U.S.-occupied Iraq and faces the son of Muammar Gaddafi, Saif al-Islam, following his capture last year in Libya.

CHILD SOLDIERS

At The Hague on Wednesday, ICC Presiding Judge Adrian Fulford said in reading the court's historic first judgment: "The chamber concludes that the prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Thomas Lubanga Dyilo is guilty of conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 years."

He was detained six years ago and faced three counts of war crimes. He could face up to life imprisonment. The three-judge panel said children were forced into camps in the Ituri region, where they were placed under harsh training regimes and brutally punished. Soldiers and army commanders under Lubanga's authority used girls as domestic workers and subjected them to rape and sexual violence, they said.

"The accused and his co-perpetrators agreed to, and participated in, a common plan to build an army for the purpose of establishing and maintaining political and military control over Ituri," they said. "This resulted in the conscription and enlistment of boys and girls under the age of 15."

Congolese Justice Minister Luzolo Bambi Lessa hailed the "historic" verdict and said the fact his country has more people facing justice at the ICC than any other showed critics of the Kinshasa government that it was serious about ending abuses.

In the eastern Congolese city of Goma, Sharanjeet Parmar of the human rights group the International Center for Transitional Justice, said: "The result is important for the ICC as Lubanga is its first trial. But more importantly for the DRC in terms of fighting the culture of impunity, because very few people who're accused of war crimes are brought to justice."

Local people, she added, were eager now to see some form of reparation made for their suffering - as well as Bosco Ntaganda, the general indicted along with Lubanga, handed over to the ICC.
"His continued liberty is actually a threat to peace," Parmar said. "It's important that he's handed over in light of the fact he is still implicated in ongoing violations."

AFRICAN SPOTLIGHT
 

Elsewhere in Africa, there was a welcome for a thug getting his just deserts, but some irritation that others, ranging from Israel and the United States, to Sri Lanka or Syria, had not felt the breath of ICC prosecutors at their heels.

At Bottom Mango Junction in Freetown, capital of Sierra Leone, people with memories of the civil war in their country - for which some are being tried in an internationally-backed local court - praised the ICC's concern for Africans, who have suffered more than most from the depredations of warlords.
"The ICC is treating Africa fairly," said Brian Ansumana, who sells diesel oil. "Because these warlords, they are using children in war, giving them guns, drugs. The ICC is in place to see that those crimes are not committed in Africa."

But in Dakar, capital of Senegal, businessman Papis Fall said: "The court is not fair. We're getting the impression that it focuses solely on African criminals. It should look for criminals everywhere, including America, Europe and ... Israel." George Mukundi of the South Africa-based Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation, said of the Lubanga verdict: "What we Africans are saying is, yes, it's useful and good ... But we would also like to see justice done, and being seen to be done, in other cases around the world."

He also voiced concern that the ICC "seems to be looking at only one side of the coin" in targeting some warlords but not other leaders in complex national and regional conflicts.

SYRIAN CONFLICT

The United Nations estimates that some 8,000 Syrians have died in violence since an uprising against Assad began a year ago. Many are civilians and U.N. officials and independent rights groups have amassed evidence from refugees of deliberate killings of demonstrators by Syrian forces and of mass torture.

The United States and its allies have said Assad looks like a war criminal. But political deadlock among the great powers in the Security Council has tied the hands of ICC prosecutors.
"We can't even get a resolution condemning the crackdown, let alone an ICC referral, due to the Russian determination to prevent Council action," one diplomat said in New York.

U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland hailed the Lubanga judgment as "a historic and an important step in providing justice and accountability for the Congolese people".
But she made clear Washington was not about to change its view that the ICC should have no jurisdiction over Americans.

Amnesty International, another group which strongly supports the aims of the court, said: "Today's verdict will give pause to those around the world who commit the horrific crime of using and abusing children both on and off the battlefield."

Source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/03/14/us-court-lubanga-idUSBRE82D0J620120314

(Additional reporting by Jonny Hogg in Kinshasa, Simon Akam in Freetown, Pascal Fletcher in Johannesburg and Diadie Ba and Mark John in Dakar, Sara Webb in Amsterdam, Stephanie Nebehay in Geneva and Louis Charbonneau at the United Nations; Editing by Alastair Macdonald and Peter Millership)

Wednesday, 14 March 2012

War Crimes Court Convicts Warlord Thomas Lubanga of Conscripting Child Soldiers

Published On Wed Mar 14 2012
Mike Corder 
Associated Press

THE HAGUE, NETHERLANDS—The International Criminal Court convicted a Congolese warlord on Wednesday of using child soldiers, a verdict hailed as a legal landmark in the fight against impunity for the world's most serious crimes.
Human rights advocates said the guilty verdicts against Thomas Lubanga — the first judgment in the court's 10-year history — should stand as a clear deterrent to armies around the world not to conscript children.

Actress and activist Angelina Jolie watched the verdicts from the court's public gallery and called them a victory for former child soldiers.

“This is their day — where these children will feel there is no impunity for what happened to them, for what they suffered,” Jolie said.

Lubanga will be sentenced following a hearing that will be scheduled later this year. He faces a maximum of life imprisonment.


The judgment came at a time when the court is under scrutiny for its inability to arrest key war crimes suspects and its impotence in not being able to intervene in the bloody conflict raging in Syria.
The court was catapulted into the limelight last week by the viral video Kony 2012, which highlighted how it still has not had Ugandan rebel Joseph Kony arrested nearly seven years after indicting him for crimes including using child soldiers, murder and torture.

The court has no police force of its own and has to rely on states to enforce its arrest warrants.
It also can only open investigations in the 120 countries that have recognized its jurisdiction or at the request of the UN Security Council. Nations including the United States, China, Russia and Syria are not members.

That means it can't launch a probe into widespread allegations that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad are systematically committing atrocities to put down an anti-government revolt.
So far, all seven of the investigations launched by the court are in Africa.

The highest profile suspects among five in custody are former Ivory Coast President Laurent Gbagbo and ex-Congo Vice-President Jean-Pierre Bemba. Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been indicted for genocide in Darfur but refuses to surrender to the court.

It took six years from the time Congo handed over Lubanga to his convictions, but ultimately the three-judge panel was unanimous in finding him guilty.

“The prosecution has proved beyond reasonable doubt that Mr. Thomas Lubanga is guilty of the crimes of conscripting and enlisting children under the age of 15 years and using them to participate actively in hostilities,” said Presiding Judge Adrian Fulford.

Lubanga, wearing an ivory-coloured robe and skull cap, sat with his hands clasped in front of him listening to the verdict and showed no emotion as Fulford declared him guilty.

As he left court flanked by guards, Lubanga nodded and smiled to supporters in the public gallery.
The victory for prosecutors came after the case twice nearly collapsed because of their failure to disclose evidence to defence lawyers and despite harsh criticism from judges in their written judgment.

Fulford said three intermediaries used by prosecutors to approach witnesses in Congo “persuaded, encouraged or assisted witnesses to give false evidence” and scrapped the evidence of three witnesses.
Rights activists also criticized prosecutors for not charging Lubanga with sexual violence crimes, despite allegations that women and girls were raped and abused by his forces.

“The Prosecutor's office must review its limited investigation strategy adopted in the Lubanga case,” said Michael Bochenek of Amnesty International. “Lessons need to be learned for future cases.”
Lubanga led the Union of Congolese Patriots political group and commanded its armed wing, the Patriotic Forces for the Liberation of Congo, which recruited children — sometimes by force, other times voluntarily — into its ranks to fight in a brutal ethnic conflict in the Ituri region of eastern Congo.

The trial, which began in January 2009, was the first at an international court to focus exclusively on the use of child soldiers. It also was the first trial at an international tribunal to allow victims to participate in the courtroom and demand compensation.

The United Nations estimates tens of thousands of child soldiers are still fighting in conflicts from Africa to Asia and Latin America. Activists hope Wednesday's judgment will reduce the number.
“The guilty verdict against Lubanga is a strong warning to military commanders in Congo and elsewhere: using children as a weapon of war is a serious crime that can lead them to the dock,” said Geraldine Mattioli-Zeltner of Human Rights Watch.

Source: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/1145848--war-crimes-court-convicts-warlord-thomas-lubanga-of-conscripting-child-soldiers.

Monday, 12 March 2012

East Timorese Plead for Justice

Michael Bachelard, Dili
March 12, 2012

WHEN East Timorese voters go to the polls on Saturday to choose a new president, every candidate with a chance will be a veteran of the struggle against Indonesia.

The thousands of fighters in that long war, including the oldest and best-known, the ''generation of 1975'', were recently awarded a generous compensation scheme by the government in recognition of service.

But barely mentioned by this country's tight-knit political elite are other victims of the invasion, many of them women, who were raped or brutalised or lost parents, husbands or children in the long occupation.
Domingas da Silva was raped repeatedly by Indonesian soldiers. Photo: Michael Bachelard
Domingas da Silva was 17 when the Indonesians invaded, and 21 when they captured her in the southern town of Viqueque, in 1979. In the following years, she was raped many times, and bore six children to different Indonesian soldiers.
At 54, the pain of those events still fills her eyes with tears. ''I felt like I lost my dignity and it was painful in my heart,'' Ms da Silva told The Age.

Family and neighbours rejected her, and only the local Catholic priest would help.
Even so, there are many years she can barely remember, her mind made blank by a mental illness she cannot name.

This mental state continued for 20 years, until after independence in 1999, when a women's group brought Ms da Silva to Dili, and sought help from a group called Pradet, dedicated to trauma recovery. She is stronger now, and well enough to speak out. She wants some recognition of her pain, and some measure of justice, though not money, because the children and grandchildren born of the rapes support her.

The Association for the Victims of the Conflict 1974-'99 lobbies on behalf of people such as Ms da Silva. Spokesman Jose Luis Oliveira says his pleas for recognition have been ignored by veterans and politicians.

A bill seeking reparation for victims has languished in East Timor's parliament since 2009.
''So the victims become victims again because the state is violating them by omission,'' he says. ''This is very painful because in the past it was the victims who gave the soldiers food and helped the veterans in the jungle.''

Ms da Silva's needs are secondary, in the mind of East Timor's leaders, to two more pressing matters. The first is the veterans, who form a powerful lobby and pose a threat of unrest in this tiny country.
The second is East Timor's desire for a strong relationship with its giant and powerful neighbour, Indonesia.

Despite the mutual scars, East Timor's youth has embraced Indonesian brands and pop culture, and many traders here are Indonesian, or from Indonesian stock.

Leaders across the political spectrum have gone out of their way to forgive past wrongs and enter discussions with East Timor's powerful neighbour.

Political party Fretilin's presidential candidate, Francisco ''Lu Olo'' Guterres, told The Age: ''As president of the republic my number one role would be to nurture and maintain the relationship with Indonesia.''

Mr Guterres, a veteran of the war whose wife and many relatives were killed by Indonesian troops, says now it is the responsibility of Indonesia and the United Nations to recognise victims and seek or provide justice.

''It is the character of the people of Timor Leste that they know how to forgive,'' he says.
Former Australian envoy James Dunn said: ''I think reconciliation is important for a lot of East Timorese people, but people still care a lot about it and feel really badly hurt.''

Mr Oliveira says the suffering of victims has ''been traded for peaceful international relations''.
As for Ms da Silva, her plea is simple. ''I ask the government: Please, pay attention to us.''

Source: http://www.smh.com.au/world/east-timorese-plead-for-justice-20120311-1usg3.html#ixzz1ouQznrLm

Friday, 9 March 2012

Not As Simple As It Seems: Current Controversy Surrounding Invisible Children’s KONY 2012



-Dr. Joanna R. Quinn

Conflict in Northern Uganda began in the mid-1980s, and Joseph Kony and his armed militia group, the Lord’s Resistance Army, were largely responsible for a series of horrible crimes perpetrated against people living there.

These abuses are too horrific to name in a paper being read by folks over breakfast, so suffice it to say that they are the worst imaginable kinds of crimes.  In fact, in 2005, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Kony and the other top LRA commanders for crimes against humanity and war crimes.  But even they got it wrong to a certain extent.

Why? Because the Government of Uganda is also responsible for much of the abuse perpetrated against the people of Northern Uganda—in large part because of their systematic neglect of social and economic conditions there, but also for refusing to quell the violence when it was ongoing. 

Yet, the rest of the world has, for the most part, stood idly by and watched – or they have  maintained a wilful ignorance of the situation.  This is even more the case now.  Kony and the LRA have moved on to other countries, including the Central African Republic, where violence levels are reportedly much the same as they once were in Northern Uganda, and he has begun to fall off the radar. 

Sending U.S. troops to Uganda is a too-little, too-late measure that has largely allowed the world’s most powerful state to assume a self-congratulatory stance, when much remains to be done.

In fact, a number of NGOs and academics have been doggedly campaigning for more and better action on the Kony situation for years.  Groups like Resolve have been working tirelessly for the capture and trial of Kony—but are conscious of the fact that so much turns on the necessary awareness of key players, like the United States.  The sending of U.S. troops came about directly as a result of Resolve’s campaign, in cooperation with a number of other key groups, including Human Rights Watch and the International Rescue Committee.

And so the KONY2012 brouhaha turns on an interesting series of debates. 

Invisible Children has been producing documentaries about the situation in Northern Uganda since 2005—I got my first copy from one of the founders’ mothers, whom I met in an internet cafe in Kampala in 2006.  From the start, their documentaries seem to have been about shaking people out of their complacency and a lack of knowledge about the issues.  Do they encompass all sides of the complex issues?  No.  Do they present a balanced perspective?  Not even close.  But they should provoke people to look more deeply at the issues.  And to encourage young people to engage in the world.  And that’s a start.

Because, until we recognize that an issue exists, and until we grasp with real understanding what the implications of letting indicted war criminals continue to carry out gross human rights violations, nothing will be done.  And that’s not good enough.

Joanna R. Quinn is an Associate Professor at Western University, where she is Director of the Africa Institute.  She has been researching in Uganda on post-conflict justice since 1998.

Kony 2012 Campaign Defends Ugandan Warlord?

The following article touches upon various perspectives surrounding Invisible Children's Kony 2012 campaign, and includes and interview with Dr. Joanna Quinn, Director of the Centre for Transitional Justice and Post-Conflict Reconstruction as well as The Africa Institute here at Western. 


http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Kony+2012+campaign+defends+Ugandan+warlord+video/6273649/story.html


Some Canadian experts are defending a controversial viral video campaign that has garnered more than 40 million views targeting a Ugandan warlord.

With a single tweet, San Francisco-based NGO Invisible Children launched its "Kony 2012" campaign, which seeks the capture of Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, to the top of the Twitterverse.

However, the campaign has quickly turned from widespread support on social media sites to growing criticism about the group and its tactics.

According to Invisible Children, its campaign seeks to make Kony "famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice. In this case, notoriety translates to public support."

In 2005, the International Criminal Court, of which Canada is a signatory, issued an arrest warrant for Kony and three other suspected war criminals. The court charged Kony with 12 counts of crimes against humanity including sexual enslavement and rape, and 21 counts of war crimes including murder, attacking civilians and forcing children to fight. The LRA has been forced out of Uganda and now operates in southern Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.

"If people know about the crimes that Kony has been committing for 26 years, they will unite to stop him," Invisible Children said on its website.

The campaign, which features a 30-minute documentary, also encourages supporters to contact celebrities and 12 world leaders, including Prime Minister Stephen Harper, about the campaign to spark action.

While Kony 2012 has supporters, it also has its detractors who say the campaign oversimplifies the issue and may incite people to take the law into their own hands.

Ugandan blogger Javie Ssozi tweeted Thursday that "the #KONY2012 approach is wrong approach because what does awareness of Kony specifically do? Leads to peace or accelerate war?"

John Thompson of the Mackenzie Institute, a non-profit organization concerned with issues related to terrorism, warfare and political instability, said the video campaign reflects an "ancient" form of counterinsurgency that has been effective in previous wars.

"It's normal. I know, somehow, in some aspects of our society, the imaginary ideal is that all problems can be solved by legal means and somehow (that's) an optimal solution to a local conflict," he said. "Somehow, like chivalry in medieval Europe, that's the ideal, but the reality is very different."
"It's a war . . . . This isn't going after some group in Idaho. This is guerrilla war; targeting one of the leaders who is propagating the whole thing," Thompson said.

"Over the years, especially with some of these wars that drag on forever, there's two approaches to counterinsurgency: work from the bottom up or top down and go after the leaders," he explained.
Thompson said it's believed that in some civil wars in the developing world, "if you can knock off a leader, especially a cult-like leader (like the LRA), it can cause a larger group to fragment and disintegrate."

"If you've tried other resources, so be it. Go for it," he added. "In World War II, would you have passed up a shot with Hitler?"

On whether the campaign may encourage unlawful actions to detain Kony, Thompson said given the atrocities Kony is accused of committing, "vigilanteeism, where you're encouraging local people to go after leaders during a time of war, how's it going to worsen the situation?"
Prof. Joanna Quinn, director of Western University's Africa Institute in London, Ont., says the campaign is correct in singling out Kony.

"This guy is an indicted war criminal by the International Criminal Court, so it's not like he has not been called out in the past. His crimes are documented and they've been investigated."
"If what they're talking about is finally carrying out the arrest warrant and capturing Joseph Kony, then I don't disagree," she said. "Going after Kony is not a bad thing."

Quinn said Invisible Children may "simplify" the war or "misrepresent things to take a certain stand" in the video. But she said the group is highlighting an important fact: the international community has "not bothered to arrest (Kony)" despite committing to do so.
"That this conflict has been allowed to fester since the 1980s speaks volumes to me, to the fact that nobody has paid attention," Quinn said.

Meanwhile, Sidneyeve Matrix, a media professor at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont., said the video is encouraging her students to delve deeper than the single tweet.

"To have that kind of sustained engagement I'm seeing . . . I don't see the dangers, I just see the possibility and potential. The campaign is doing part of the work, but it's people and community that's doing the rest of it," she said.

With files from Bradley Bouzane
snonato@postmedia.com