A film that was made by the Invisible Children with the aim of making on run Lord's Resistance Army rebel leader Joseph Kony famous, is hurting Uganda's tourism sector, the tourism, wildlife and heritage minister said in Kampala. The Minister told journalists at the Uganda Media Centre over the weekend that bringing back memories of Kony, and making him popular, the main aim of the film, is scaring away tourists. Invisible Children is a non profit organization that has been working for 9 years to end Africa's longest-running armed conflict.
Invisible Children's KONY 2012 campaign on their website, defend their act that "they want to make Joseph Kony famous, not to celebrate him, but also to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice. "In this case, notoriety translates to public support. If people know about the crimes that Kony has been committing for 26 years, they will unite to stop him. "Secondly, we want Kony to be famous so that when he is stopped, he will be a visible, concrete example of international justice. Then other war criminals will know that their mass atrocities will not go unnoticed or unpunished."
However, the minister is bitter that instead of a positive cause, the film is creating a negative image for Uganda abroad. "We don't intend to sue the film makers. At least I don't know about that. But we're not happy with this film," said Kamuntu when asked whether the government will sue the film makers for tarnishing Uganda's image.
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