Last Friday the 13th, April 2012, during an official Invisible Children-organized screening of KONY 2012 part 2 in the Northern Ugandan city of Gulu, the audience became so enraged by the video that they started to pelt the screen, and IC organizers, with rocks.

Ugandan police, in turn shot tear gas at the crowd and fired their rifles into the air, causing panic. One death and several injuries were reported.

http://www.monitor.co.ug/News/National/-/688334/1387926/-/aw2cd3z/-/index.html

It was the second riot, or near-riot, that Invisible Children’s videos have provoked in Uganda.

From the linked Uganda Monitor story:

“Ms Margaret Aciro, whose picture appears in the Kony 2012 video showing her lips, nose and ears mutilated, has criticised the documentary, saying it is aimed at making money using victims of the northern insurgency.

Ms Aciro, 35, abducted by rebels of the LRA in 2003 from Paicho Sub-county in Gulu Municipality, was among thousands of people who flocked Pece War Memorial Stadium on Friday to watch the filming of Kony 2012 by Invisible Children.

“I watched the Kony 2012 video but I decided to return home before the second one (Kony 2012 Par II) because I was dissatisfied with its content. I became sad when I saw my photo in the video. I knew they were using it to profit.”

The Catholic Archbishop of Gulu and member of the Acholi Religious Leaders Peace Initiative, Rt. Rev John Baptist Odama, whose daughter committed suicide as a result of her treatment while kidnapped by Kony’s LRA, also had harsh words for the Invisible Children video screening:

“This is catastrophic, it’s causing chaos. It is igniting more, actually, a situation of starting afresh the war. But now it is against the population. This film could have been prepared with a consultation. For example, the stakeholders could be consulted – “We would like to project a film like this, what do you think?” People should have been asked before, instead of having the film shown now.”

In addition, Invisible Children denies being an evangelical organization, or having official ties to any evangelical organizations, but it is listed as an official dues-paying evangelical Christian ministry in the Barnabas Group.

http://www.barnabasgroup.org/invisible-children-mi-51-li-5.html

The IC nonprofit has extensive, demonstrated ties to the politicized, evangelical right:

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2012/4/16/223727/559

Short Term Missions

But that’s just my opinion.

The video as well as the site looks great!! I’ve been watching the site looking for new stories and was pleasantly surprised to see new names, familiar faces, great videos/pictures, as well nicely written sports stories. Please tell the staff Congrats on a nice product and to keep up the good work! I’ll be sure to keep logging back on to check out what’s new on campus! Take care and I’ll be in touch soon!

Andrew
(Your old sports editor)