Transcripts For DW Operation Kony 20240713

Social networks never forget. So i searched in my personal archives. 2012. March. Had i liked or shared the most viral video in history 100000000 views in just 6 days. The. Name is Jason Russell and this is my son. It was the story of a Young American director Jason Russell who hoped his 30 minute video would facilitate the capture of a new torrijos war criminal in Central Africa. Joseph coney. This is big. I just cody. The good the bad dont look. For 26 years tony has been kidnapping children into his rebel group. Turning the girls into sex slaves. Now. The video was meant to shock to outrage people seized. To bring joseph kony to Justice Russell even set up a private n. G. O. S called invisible children. Its Internet Campaign kone 2012 was a runaway success. Among those who circulated the video for a few of my friends. Until recently i had forgotten all about the video and about joseph koni himself. Then 2 journalists from our team entrusted me with this hard drive with footage shot in africa in 2014. The starting point for my investigation. I set out in pursuit of the most infamous war criminal on social networks and of invisible children begin g. O. That want to stop them my 1st port of call was good in northern uganda joseph coney is native region. I took the same roads that the directors of coney 2012 took and met the same people. Former child soldiers of the n. R. A. The brutal rebel group headed by joseph koni. From the late 1980 s. The warlord raided villages here to replenish his rents with new recruits. It was on friday. In the morning when they came to our village. I would guess all of the rain. And the 2nd night i was given some simple training for using guns and i think that. Whether i make it or not i dont. Know so i have to tough and i said. The 3 filmmakers from invisible children turned up here in gulu in 2003. I was able to track down the woman who served as their guide at the time. And then i walked a lot of Charity Organizations and i went to the u. S. To talk about the war in northern uganda and i started telling how i was a for much i was sold and then how many kids of being abducted here and that is where i received a lot of people. Well theyre ignorant about the war and when the boys so i always called in the boys im sorry but when the filmmaker was so distillery. They contacted me and definitely i would see this story of how they wanted to talk aboard the war in africa and they said wait a minute you want to talk about war theres a wall rather than your gun. But because they were naive to i drove with them to the north. There was a lot of. This sort of russian. With children. And thats how everything started. What they did they made a lot of small videos about. Some of the victims of the war. And of course the final the 12 documented was going 2012. Bringing it out in top 10 minutes. A war that had lasted for more than. Many people even looked like a joke. Since then the ninetys kids have grown up and theyre in geo is now based in washington like all successful lobbyist. Like because its just we could just put it into just a year before i could talk to the president of invisible children you can let me know if my hair will be a problem at any point and i need to know that. There was an endless back and forth of negotiations 24 teams my colleagues request for an interview was declined it took dozens of. Emails and months of waiting before i got the green light. To new remember what was the objective of the currency as well as the deal. Part of my work 6100000000 people have now is one of the Main Objective of the campaign was to push the u. S. Government to remain committed to implementing its counter eller a strategy and then the deployment of the advisors was an outcome of that strategy ready for the videos explicit aim was to provoke the u. S. Into sending troops after coni. Train track him in the fast jungle in order to find him the Us Government has to deploy them thats where the american advisors come in not for self defense but because it was right. Politically speaking it was hugely successful. Hugely successful not really 2 years before coney 2012 became a Global Internet sensation invisible children was already lobbying the oval office as this photo from 2010 clearly shows. The greatest small number of u. S. Forces i ordered the small number of american advisors to help uganda and its neighbors pursue the l. R. The removal of joseph kony from the battlefield sincerely. Its just a small step from garnering likes to dispatching troops. In the 21st century a video can start a war. But thats the americans helicopter visibility or says the videos on my hard drive document at the u. S. Operation it featured some members of the 100 strong special forces team deployed by obama. May we have just a question with you because we just wanted to understand. No photos go on camera or are there going i dont know. Somewhat surprisingly and invisible children can can be seen on the footage. Surprising because my colleagues shot the material in 2014 in the Eastern Central African Republic by then it had been almost a decade since joseph coneys militia had abandoned their base in uganda. The remnants were holed up somewhere in a vast neighboring area between the democratic republic of congo south sudan and the Central African republic. Here in obo hundreds of kilometers east of the war torn capital bangui is where the americans claimed that coney and his troops were hiding. On the ground my colleagues realized that not only was invisible children behind the deployment of u. S. Army advisers the american n. G. O. Was also hosting military meetings. Specifically for the u. S. Special forces directing operations in the hunt for kone and their allies the ugandans who are carrying out their orders. We kill him good. Morning. General care in the way colonel the only only measure of the u. S. Forces that were. In Regional Task force in the el rey bringing the ellery. They will hear our message 3 today and they all understand it is time to vote. So its for us. To. The bush is still in the bush right but his organization is coming out of the bush its as you know this is a gigantic area here and to find one person that does not want to be found is very difficult. Fast forward 4 years by now the u. S. Operation was over the Army Advisers had returned home having failed to capture kone. But why end a manhunt when the target is still at large. Had the most powerful army in the world been looking in the wrong place. Or did the mission have other objectives. My family remained mostly in uganda. The father was Prime Minister. Until that government itself was overthrown by the party thank you. Up to 6 years of intervention right they didnt get. Right where they even looking for him of course not they were not looking for corn and in fact its hard to say its even a success or failure since i believe 100 percent that was never the objective anyway. This operation was cost more than 700000000. 00 the possible it only makes sense if that money was going to finance another i genda. Who are the soldiers we filmed in 2014. What was the true nature of their mission. They were there under the banner of the pentagons Africa Command africa. But its not only a military command. According to this recently declassified internal document afrikan comprises both military personnel and civilians protecting u. S. Interests in africa is one of its goals. Which interests diplomatic and military but also economic financial as well as intelligence above all africa operates in the gray zone between traditional war and peace. Africa is meant to intervene in a humanitarian role so that is the official narrative. But the more geo political narrative is that the u. S. Would be able to start sneaking in u. S. Force says through uganda and then spread it into the region to counter other interest in africa. In 2014 the people of oboe rarely saw u. S. Army rangers on patrol. What they did see though was their aircraft their helicopters and their drones. Back to great. Britain ok. Really theyre going out now you know. Theyre. Going up there. Without the excuse of hunting down a war criminal the u. S. Military would never have been allowed to conduct an airborne operation over such an unstable strategic area. Thanks to operation. Tony it was able to map the area and install g. P. S. Beacons. Or in military terms gather intelligence. But Central Africa is not just a region of military interest. Its also rich in gold and diamond reserves along with businessmen ready to exploit them. This man for example on the left. He appears in footage shot in 2014 at a security meeting in obo. That day he was handed what was clearly a confidential map. He refused our requests to film it and with good reason. I dont. Think it was a map was addressed to the colonel of the American Armed forces. Not said mark this is mark pearson. Apparently hes a cultural adviser. But what would a cultural advisor be doing in obo. And why entrust a cultural advisor with an American Military map. 4 years later i looked into who mark pearson really was. Before following the American Military into the area he was employed by jim diamonds a multinational diamond operation. Did both turnover of some 300000000 euros with mines and prospecting projects all over africa including one in the Central African republic. But the only area of diamond exploration officially declared by the company is in the west of the Central African republic one and a half 1000 kilometers away from mobile on the other side of the country. So what was one of jem diamonds former employees doing here. In a region that harbors a wealth of gold and diamond process. In kampala the ugandan capital i needed to find out more about who was really running the country. You know where we must have any power in a coup in 1906 to consolidate his grip on power he purge the country of many rebel groups. Joseph coneys however was spared. Along with a creation of the state. Only a member of the opposition would talk to me about this angle of the story. When as president but it will have been my dentist so on i dont want to do so lindy davis on was it clear from all big up and my dad that will wont. But i have to stay with those photo the way that when i was there what train. Devastated you want ice that never came in and wanted to create would have been to see if you use it or you dont you would have been dead 59 going to it if you didnt have that was in about it about what it was of them. Without those of course. The Ugandan Administration would not be able to make that justification but it needs more militarist systems from the United States that means it needs more weapons and it needs more Financial Resources and diplomatic partnership with the United States how would he be able to make that narrative with the presence of corn. That brings us to the least known and least documented part of the story. On the pretext of driving out joseph koni the ugandan army committed horrific atrocities in. Site its own country. Between 19862004 most event is army engaged in a bloody crackdown in northern uganda. Officially it was hunting down the l r a. Son officially that was crushing resistance to this move from the actually people the ethnic group to which joseph kony belonged and which had dominated the previoUs Government. Deniability a young man called richard was complaining a lot the army took him behind one army uniform on him and they came back and said this one of the rebels want to show you today that this i would give it a war so they take the ladies or those they dont because on battery and they shut him. Up for the 73. 00 mothers it. Toward. And it told to shut up do anything to do this and. This very incident was detailed in 1991 Amnesty International report. We havent a single is did where. Was accused of intentional going to image and the mass killing people are you familiar with the 2005 Human Rights Watch report about this conflict. No Human Rights Watch. You know. Because in their 2005 report which is the most exhaustive they refer to torture. Rape. Full killings. On both sides on the r. A side and also on the beauty of sites so its not in the case of impossible to have our own human rights commission. But you do agree for instance some 2005 report by Human Rights Watch did the worlds a pretty strong willing full killing rape torture this is not blights where she made a split. Post some of them were lies some of them just one little these are not verified yet work hard cases over mother might of what personal medical groups of people. And international. Why was the United States desperate to support the ugandan regime at all costs despite its abuses despite the authoritarian rule of most of any president for more than 3 decades or was it because the agent ugandan autocrat was providing a few services to his american godfather. Gets to let them edit out one on president be with use of the football on today as this big proof saying so much. When you were known to have been sampson my the american officials can progress in parliament to support the probe of the collapse of the or. If you need somebody to be involved to help in fighting. Terrorism in a place like somalia which is celtic and it was so many is willing to do that sending ugandan soldiers to. I think thats a very easy decision for us to make regardless of anything else that was somebody does you know weve been bad so. And can weigh in on me when too late i quoted a couple of. The show the way they stayed in talked a good bit like that many times get the black and i didnt that well maybe its been about the pub but it could double that and what the bleep since the incident so you and i because. America made it so when we screwed it. Yes were coming along so. None of this was mentioned in the kone 2012 video. Not a word about the ugandan regime about president museveni 4 about the war crimes committed by his army. Why not. And what exactly was invisible childrens role. When they say theyre helping the widows or orphans or so on what do they really do and. Those are the sorts of questions that always occur in my mind. When across from probably about 2 years before their big viral video and. I found their website and look at them and read what they said they were doing. So something about it felt very off to me. Their level of access to the region of northern uganda is around 2005 northern uganda was completely sealed off by the ugandan army the only people who got in especially people with camera gear sophisticated camera gear such people did not get into northern uganda without the express permission of the ugandan government Jason Russell and his team they were going there because the ugandan government want them to be in there so why. The small in geo was purportedly working to save orphans when in fact it was promoting one of the most corrupt regimes in africa. This is a radio h. Q. Where we coordinate all the security information for the southeast of the Central African republic. Newsroom. Every day we have a security round in the morning and another in the afternoon the afternoon. In concrete terms it was nothing more than a network of informants scattered through dozens of villages and they were responsible for reporting the movements of active armed rebels without really knowing whether there were any small isolated l r a groups among them or not. That was more information. Because the radios were all over the community. That information. This is so it was full on top of it. In the. Most of the information would come to the invisible radio network. Mr sawyer i knew about it was how forceful the info. But i dont know how it would have been between a nonprofit seeking information to the military so we were kind of like. At the end of it looked as if we were the voice of the military the. The n. R. A. Why children if youre feeling the military before them and go on get them to the children. At the door your god and she told me she felt uncomfortable with sharing information with a new trick. Thats very interesting i was not in a position of leadership that i am now at the time when julie was working with invisible hand in that role but my understanding was that that was not her sentiment previously so i. Only recently. My understanding is that that was not a sentiment that she held. At the time that these programs are being developed the concept of neutrality with the l r a is very different than in the context of a civil conflict or intercommunal conflict and so in that context supporting essentially Law Enforcement in the protection of civilians we felt like was very. Except that in the code of ethics for n. G. O. S recognized by the un neutrality is nonnegotiable in fact a Nongovernmental Organization should always be independent of governments enormous. Invisible children however has always collaborated with the ugandan army and regime. So just like in february 2009 at the time the most of any government claimed there was a conspiracy afoot to overthrow it. Patrick coma cash who had worked for invisible children in its early days was accused of being part of the plot. I was happy to. Only go to north what he did for me. I was supposed to die. I have been. Never seen in my life before. And i think a month and 10 days i remember one day i was in charge of us prisoners who were down there. By the way this guy from. Patrick was eventually cleared of all charges but who denounced him the answer was hidden in a secret diplomatic note written by the Us Ambassador himself into. 1009 later published on the wiki leaks website. Though the woods here number 4 they say they foiled a plot against the ugandan government and were looking for someone. On the. Ship secured patrick comic i wish. You well we do because they say he was then arrested thanks to a tip off from invisible children the army even the American Ambassador implies that the organization does the leg work for ugandan forces. By dan out of it is and i was not working we didnt do it and i talked. And i didnt know what r. P. But this is a confession from that i quote. Somebody there. Was so much in the center of the allegation and investigation admitting that people from invisible children. Is nice but please come back if. You know him. Know who i am i do know who he is but i dont i cant have interact with him and i this if i heard his name it might have been back in 2007 or something very early do you know what happens or. No i dont say that it is been arrested because invisible children the gave both to the Ugandan Security forces i have no information about that. How do you feel about doubts about that it was a bush a little bit of would be able to to do so. Well i have i have no way of knowing if thats true at all i sorry it is i mean of met the guy there is substantial evidence thats actually invisible children have thats im david supposed to be your im not a tree on the and arrested him and the guy was tortured for 3 months and then he was cleared because he didnt do anything how would you feel about that is that you see. I i have no information about that situation at all i obviously anyone who acts who would experience something horrible like that is it is unacceptable i have no information on that situation. Another thing that bothered me about the county 2012 video was the evangelical rather messianic tone adopted by Jason Russell. The founder of invisible children seems to regard himself as something of a pastor. His speeches are sermons. Who are you know and no one im here to tell you who are not. Heres the copy that was put out by truth wins out the words organization i was working. On for this audio i found a pearson russell at the gathering in 2000. Gathering is the Biggest Community of christian fundamentalist philanthropists in the United States. Only and so with this movie we are able to be the trojan horse in a sense going into a route say guess what lifes about our friends and stop. By. And. Start. That what has it all to. Well i was surprised that he would use the word chosen horse even at. A conference such as that of a joker christian donors i was surprised that he went that far to it minute that is is that they visible children was. Perpetrating some some just see. As its. True. So i. Cant comment like jason might have not said but i can say very calm down we are in no way a religiously affiliated organization. All of this was funded by an army of young people who put their money toward their belief in the value of all human life they gave a few dollars a month of what little they have. They say their funding comes from young people who give a few of those a month. As invisible children became better and better known they were able to get small donations by by presenting themselves as more or less a secular. Nonprofit which was doing great things in africa but thats not where they started they they started with money from the. Giant fundamentalist heaven chuckled philanthropies that gave them seed money. This is the 1st year there for a living as it is is the list of those thats really. A lot of churches yellow churches a lot of ministers so heres the big one the Prohibition Foundation which is a subsidiary of the National Christian foundation and so this form lists. 350000. 00 and i think theyre one of the biggest in grants they got in 2007 and the National Christian foundation its a fundamentalist christian philanthropy they say in their statement of belief that the bible is the infallible inerrant word of god and that were about essentially extending the kingdom promoting the kingdom are our kind of the christian kingdom throughout the world and. We are. Nonprofit organization thats completely secular that folks not at the prevention into neuroscience programming so thats not thats not that. Its art and its a sure sign that it will go to invisible children web sites you know to see what theyre publishing there in terms of the thats the drinks yeah thatll be interesting because i havent looked at it. I think its probably still with this. If youre getting half a 1000000. 00 from someone no name and it was yeah you know i mean. When you when you go to do some daughters in your thoughts form. We can say that we can see that there was a amounts of money for instance house a 1000000. 00 from someone but we dont know what we dont know who it is really awful on you know but. I could say no because yeah because its so interesting. To google up and down with a few days after the interview that they should the invisible Children Press officer who cut in during the interview sent me this clarification. It guarantees that donations are from private foundations with no religious affiliation shoes. I mean if you look i reply that i would like to believe there is no religious connection for me but need to check for myself. Could i have the names since then ive had no word from invisible children. But it doesnt end there the involvement of another more powerful entity in uganda raises the question who was really behind kone 2012. On the author of 2 books about an american fundamentalist organization with deep involvement in uganda. The family or the fellowship as its known is the oldest and arguably the most influential Christian Conservative Political Organization in the United States. The organization the furs and terry very low profile the more invisible you can make your organization the longtime leader on the saying the more influence it will have he liked to refer to it as the christian mafia. Located close to congress this unremarkable red brick building belongs to the fellowship. Its members meet here in private to talk about jesus and business. But it wont open its doors to outsiders. Its membership was not for the masses they werent doing any big revivals it was for congressmen Business Leaders government leaders and they play a major part and facilitating u. S. Relationships with authoritarian figures around the world thats what they admire this they when they look at christ they dont see a model of love or compassion primarily they see strikes. Could there then be a more i do. Were screwed for the fellowship than the autocrats here where he must have any. Call for a terry and vehemently homophobic and evangelical. The family looks at the 70 as their key man as they put it in uganda but also as their one of their key men in africa and one of the key men globally saying come to us pray with us. Do business with us and they really take credit for forging that relationship at the beginning and turning the 70 into the american sphere of influence where he has remained as powerful regional proxy ever since. In washington i was particularly interested in one member of the fellowship. A senator named jim inhofe known for his interest in african affairs. On im having a lot of on on what i think you know paula its what you might think you feel like. Inhofe was one of the stars of the coney 2012 video. With all the problems that are out there no one is more severe than one in the middle ages and takes the lives of the little kids. Thats just in it all to this senator jim inhofe from oklahoma must be pretty close to the ngo because in one of the other videos we have we see him taking part in one of the n. G. O. S protests. There he is and. His interest in uganda goes back many years. And this press release from 2006 he was already raising the alarm about what he called northern uganda as terrorist group the l r a. When i go he says im doing my jesus thing when he goes and meets with foreign leaders he says im a u. S. Senator im a conduit to u. S. Power and money if you want to get there you go through me and you go to jesus. The senator will not answer our questions whats clear is that for decades a radical fellowship has been pulling strings behind the scenes to get uganda to advance u. S. Interests. Connie 2012 was just part of a much more complex story. Incidentally what happened right after the videos of viral success. Once its makers collected 70000000. 00 in donations. That. After calling friends a trove when i was c. E. O. Decided that there was no funding coming in i mean made the decision to close the invisible children in uganda. The moral of this story. Is that there isnt one. In 2017 the u. S. Governments Development Agency usaid awarded 24000000. 00 in grants to invisible children to fund a 5 year mission in the democratic republic of congo. Today invisible children gets most of its funding from the Us Government. To me a founder member of the invisible today and im the one who led to them to get this story i felt pipes that this is our story that went out there and it was being managed by someone else that is why i chose to continue with it. Even if the coronavirus is sending football into a forced break. Either way we will still be bringing you the stars and small. The stories are essentially surrounding our favorite sports. Because we wont have to soccer fun stop just yet. Kick off. In 30 minutes on d w. Bringing in. Thailand a true talent is transforming peoples lives im still learning so you paddle in the mental mountain communities. Hes bringing an actual city to places that have never had to be cool the last cons of hurricanes Energy Revolution told the residents of these villages challenge you spend some can also morale kind of clue so. The 80 minutes on w. The global corona crisis you can find more Information Online d. W. Dot com and on t. W. Social media channels. Crime fighters are back with africas most successful radio drama series continues in the only disowns are Available Online course you can share and discuss on w africas facebook and other social media platforms crime fighters to me now. This is deja news and these our top story british Prime Minister Boris Johnson has ordered a nationwide lockdown to slow the spread of a new coronavirus hes told britons to stay at home except for a few exceptions hes also one of the closure of most shops. That is a World Health Organization says the covert 19 virus is currently outrunning efforts to contain it and the cases of the infection ike celebrating more than 16000. 00 people globally