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LIVE WEB AND WORLDWIDE CANBLE TV  BROADCAST OF A BRILLIANT GENOCIDE TODAY AND THIS WEEKEND ONLY with RT News / Russia Today 

Watch it online here if you don’t have Foxtel or cable TV:

https://www.rt.com/on-air

Please check www.rt.com/schedule for updates over the weekend to confirm our airing times.  All times are in GMT! You can watch live from the website or phone app, or on Cable / Foxtel on the RT (Russia Today Global News Channel).
Todays Screening on RT – March 3:
10:30am GMT  – Part Two
9.30pm Australia (AEST)
12:30am Uganda
6:30am – New York
3:30pm GMT (Part One – Fingers Crossed!)
2:30am – Australia – AEST
6:30pm Uganda
11:30am – New York
5:30pm GMT  (Part Two – Fingers Crossed!)
04:30am – Australia AEST
08:30pm Uganda
1:30pm – New York
March 4 Broadcast Times in GMT 
(times are likely to change slightly so please check www.rt.com/schedule tomorrow)
01:30am (Aus 12:30pm) Part 1 (we hope)
06:30am (Aus 5:30pm) Part 2 (we hope)
08:30am (Aus7:30pm)
9:30am (Aus 8:30pm)
14:30pm (Aus 01:30am)
19:30pm (Aus 08:30am)

NOTE: GMT Times (+11 hours AEST – Melbourne etc; Uganda is +3 hours; LA -7 hours; NY is -4 hours )

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A Brilliant Genocide screens for a second & final time tonight at the Beloit International Film Festival in Wisconsin (March 1st, 7pm sharp)

If you’re within reach of Beloit we would love to see you! (2 hrs drive ex Chicago)

See: www.bit.ly/ABGBeloit
#EndTheSilence

BELOIT File 25-1-17, 4 39 30 pm.png

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Finally, worldwide TV broadcast of our film A Brilliant Genocide! THIS WEEKEND for those who have missed the 5o+ film festival screenings we have had in 2016!
 
TV broadcast currently scheduled in the U.K. and Australia this weekend on the 9th, 10th and the 11th of December on RT / Russia Today TV (Foxtel channel 658 in Australia and Channel 135 in the U.K)
 
If you don’t have Foxtel/Cable it will also be streamed on RT.com !
 
If you are outside of the UK and Australia please check with RT to see what dates it will be screened in your country.
 
Follow us for regular updates and to join the conversation on Facebook at ABRILLIANTGENOCIDE; Twitter or Instagram!
#EndTheSilence #ABrilliantGenocide
Former United Nations Ambassador and UPC President Olara Otunnu with A Brilliant Genocide director Ebony Butler

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Our U.K Premiere at Raindance Film Festival was a huge success with booked out screenings and week long celebrations to mark the beginning of and end to the silence around the genocide in Uganda.

Our major premiere screening took place in London on Friday night (Sept. 27) at Vue Cinemas on Regent Street and was followed by an expert panel discussion with hosts traveling from other parts of the world just to take part in the event. 

Ambassador Olara Otunnu (UPC Party President) flew in from Uganda and Milton Allimadi (Black Star News) travelled from New York  just hours before the screening to host our panel.

Here is one of many reviews of our film, this time from George Okello who attended one of our screenings at Raindance:

George Okello

A Brilliant Genocide Film Documentary was screened yesterday evening at at Piccadilly Circus, London. The event was sold out, and I met a few of the UAH members, including Joseph Ochieno, Milton Alimadi, John Latigo and plenty of others.

Otunnu made a very powerful address, on the Genocide that happened in northern Uganda, specifically aimed at wiping out the Acholi as a people. Otunnu contended it was the deliberate intention and policy of Rwandan outlaw Kayibanda Museveni and the NRA gangster movement to wipe out an entire people, only the first time it had been attempted since the Nazi regime of Adolf Hitler. He distinguished the NRA progroms from others before it, in that genocides like in Rwanda, Yugoslavia, Iraq etc tended to be sudden, concentrated bursts of violence that lasted a short duration of probably 2-3 years, whereas the one in Acholi was drawn out over 20 years, and was systematic, carefully planned, assiduously orchestrated following a pre-determined pattern aimed at delivering a Final Solution; ie the total elimination of the Acholi people;

1. First Kill the Acholi people.

2. Take away their Land

3. Destroy their culture and identity as a people and Make Them Slaves.

Otunnu said Kayibanda has in fact almost succeeded in his mission of wiping out the Acholi people. He contended the Acholi of old is almost dead- her rich cultural heritage reduced to ashes, her people deliberately marginalised and removed from all positions of power and authority; and her land is now being systematically grabbed by Kayibanda and given away to foreigners. 20 years of brutal encampment have almost destroyed the Acholi traditional systems of governance and completely corrupted the culture that had kept the society together for centuries.

Otunnu painted a very bleak picture of what would amount to one of the greatest crimes ever committed in the history of humanity and human civilisation, and that this crime took place in the full glare of the world without anybody doing anything to stop it. Kayibanda was given free reign to implement one of the worst episodes of barbarity ever inflicted on human beings anywhere in the world.

Dr Adam Branch, who is probably the only western academic to document the suffering of the Acholi people, and the holocaust they went through also gave testimony. Other panelists included Dr Vincent Magombe (Free Uganda).

The Documentary itself is a very powerful rendition of the darkness of man’s heart, how a very cruel and sadistic maniac, obsessed with power, was allowed to run amok among a totally defenceless people and set about murdering them just for fun.

There was not much chance for debate, because of time limitation. My only criticism is that being a mainly victim narrative, the political explanation for Kayibanda Museveni’s grosteque violence and savagery remains largely unexplained. Secondly, the suffering of the Acholi people is made to be unique to the Acholi people, whereas kayibanda Museveni’s barbarity and Rwandan occupation of our country has inflicted harm and suffering all across Uganda, and Eastern Uganda in particular Teso.

The Documentary is a valuable contribution to the unmasking of the brutality of Rwandan outlaw Kayibanda Museveni, and is one of the many attempts Ugandans will use to bring world attention to their suffering. The world can not surely turn a blind eye anymore to the suffering of Ugandans. 

The Documentary is also a reminder that we will bring Kayibanda Museveni and his henchmen to justice, no matter how long it will take. He will be be punished and should have no illusions about our determination.

October 1 at 10:46pm

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#ENDIMPUNITY     #ENDTHESILENCE

Take a stance against injustice and impunity by sharing this petition and helping reach the audience deserves. #JusticeNow http://bit.ly/STOPM7

Dear U.S. President,

I just saw the harrowing documentary “A Brilliant Genocide” which exposes how for three decades, successive U.S. administrations have supported the Uganda dictator Gen. Yoweri Museveni with billions of dollars in financial and military assistance. Gen. Museveni has used this money to entrench his regime in power and commit crimes against the Acholi people in northern Uganda that we maintain amount to genocide and minorities outside of Uganda. Museveni has for 3 decades embarked on a campaign of terror against the Majority Acholi People and also the destabilization of countries outside of his own nation’ borders.

The whole world is familiar with the atrocities committed in northern Uganda by Joseph Kony and his notorious Lord’s Resistance Army. These include killings, rapes, mutilations and the abduction of children who were turned into sex slaves and child soldiers. “A Brilliant Genocide” exposes how Gen. Museveni diabolically exploited the LRA atrocities as cover for his own crimes against the Acholi people.

In “A Brilliant Genocide” we learn that many of the crimes committed by the Ugandan army were just as brutal as those of the LRA, if not more so. These included the rape of women and men, facial mutilations and burying people alive in large pits which were then covered with earth and grass and set on fire to roast the victims alive. In some cases, these atrocities were committed by U.S. trained officers and soldiers carrying U.S. supplied weapons. Humans Rights Groups estimate that more than a million people have perished through massacres and displacements over this period. The atrocities continue.

“A Brilliant Genocide” exposes how Gen. Museveni ordered his army to evict two million Acholis from their homes and confine them in concentration camps where women and girls were victims of sexual assault by Museveni’s soldiers and roughly 1000 people died each week, mostly from starvation and disease, according to a 2005 World Health Organization report. This went on for 20 years, during which time more than one million people may have perished. Museveni seized power in 1986, during the administration of Ronald Reagan. Since then, he has been re-elected five times in elections deemed not free or fair by both international observers and the Ugandan Supreme Court. How can the U.S. continue to aid such a criminal regime?

Dear U.S. President, I demand that:

  1. The U.S. immediately cut off arms supplies and any military and non-humanitarian support for Gen. Yoweri Museveni’s regime.
  2. That the U.S. take steps to ensure that the perpetrators of crimes committed by the Museveni regime, including Gen. Museveni himself, face justice, just as the U.S. has demanded of Joseph Kony and his associates face justice.
  3. That the U.S. use diplomatic pressure and sanctions to force the Ugandan government to compensate victims of all atrocities committed by Museveni’s regime, including the killing of relatives and loss of property such as land and livestock throughout Uganda, not just in the north.
  4. That the U.S. support the Ugandan opposition and all those fighting for justice in their demand for an independent audit of the Feb. 18, 2016 presidential election. This would be similar to the UN sponsored audit carried out after the disputed election of Ashraf Ghani in Afghanistan.

Please see the film trailer for “A Brilliant Genocide” here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mE-a-fbv_CM

#ENDIMPUNITY     #ENDTHESILENCE

Take a stance against injustice and impunity by sharing this petition and helping reach the audience deserves. #JusticeNow http://bit.ly/STOPM7

 

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SIGN THE PETITION HERE

Cut Off U.S. Weapons To Gen Museveni Uganda’s Murderous Dictator:

Dear President Obama,

As you know on Feb. 18 Uganda held elections that were universally condemned by credible observers including by the U.S. as flawed and having not been free, fair or credible; they were also marred by violence against opposition leaders and their supporters by state security agents.

The Ugandan military has since escalated its human rights abuses by inflicting brutal repression against civilians.

The U.S., which is a major security partner of the Ugandan regime, providing arms and training for its army – in addition to $700 million in financial support — must at the very least suspend this relationship as required by the Leahy Amendment which “prohibits the U.S. Department of State and Department of Defense from providing military assistance to foreign military units that violate human rights with impunity.”

With respect to the Feb. 18 vote, former Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo condemned the Ugandan regimes’ vote suppression in opposition strongholds; he said the delays in delivery of election material were “inexcusable.”

Yoweri_Museveni_with_Obamas_2014
President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama greet His Excellency Yoweri Museveni, President of the Republic of Uganda, in the Blue Room during a U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit dinner at the White House, Aug. 5, 2014. (Official White House Photo by Amanda Lucidon)

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“Although Africa has long been known to be rich in oil, extracting it hadn’t seemed worth the effort and risk until recently. But with the price of Middle Eastern crude skyrocketing, and advancing technology making reserves easier to tap, the region has become the scene of a competition between major powers that recalls the 19th-century scramble for colonization. Already, the United States imports more of its oil from Africa than from Saudi Arabia, and China, too, looks to the continent for its energy security.”

Can the United States restrain Chinese influence on the resource rich continent? 

GB Times – The Third Angle

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Yesterday Human Rights Watch (HRW) released a new 50 page report on Uganda documenting an influx of government attacks on organizations whose focus includes oil revenue transparency, land acquisition compensation, legal & governance reform, and protection of human rights.

Excerpt: ‘If your research raises a flag about people in power in this country, and how they are getting money out of this country, you are at serious risk. If you preach human rights, you are anti-development, an economic saboteur. You are not going to talk about land, oil, and good governance.’

Comment from our Child Troopers Facebook Post:

Doka Oringtho Musa: When Museveni wants to use the Army to steal elections, he does not need the Civil Society monitoring his activities.

Uphold Rights of Freedom of Expression and Association

AUGUST 21, 2012
  • © 2011 Human Rights Watch
Uganda’s government is putting serious pressure on civil society, particularly on organizations that might be seen as infringing upon the officials’ political and financial interests. Civil society should have space to conduct research and take part in policy debates without fear of government reprisals.
Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch

(Nairobi) – Research and advocacy organizations inUganda that deal with controversial topics are facing increasing harassment by Uganda’s government, Human Rights Watch said in a report released today. Groups have recently faced forced closure of meetings, threats, harassment, arrest, and punitive bureaucratic interference. The Ugandan government should end its hostile rhetoric and repeated obstructions of nongovernmental organizations, Human Rights Watch said.

The 50-page report, “Curtailing Criticism: Intimidation and Obstruction of Civil Society in Uganda,”documents increasing government attacks on organizations whose focus includes oil revenue transparency, land acquisition compensation, legal and governance reform, and protection of human rights, particularly the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people. Both government ministers and district-level officials have engaged in obstruction, Human Rights Watch said.

“Uganda’s government is putting serious pressure on civil society, particularly on organizations that might be seen as infringing upon the officials’ political and financial interests,” said Maria Burnett, senior Africa researcher at Human Rights Watch. “Civil society should have space to conduct research and take part in policy debates without fear of government reprisals.”

President Yoweri Museveni, in office since 1986, is widely believed to be gearing up for yet another term. Since his re-election in 2011, political tensions have been running high and public criticism of government has escalated. To better control this environment the ruling party’s high-ranking government officials are increasingly scrutinizing nongovernmental organizations and the impact they might have on public perceptions of governance and management of public funds, Human Rights Watch found.

This report is based on research carried out by Human Rights Watch staff throughout 2011, as well as in-country research from May to July 2012, and a review of Uganda’s nongovernmental regulations and other relevant laws. Human Rights Watch interviewed 41 people, including 25 representatives of organizations working on a broad range of thematic work and from around the country, as well as donors, police, and government actors.

The operations of nongovernmental organizations in Uganda are regulated by the country’s NGO Act, which requires organizations to register with the government’s NGO Board, managed by the minister of internal affairs. Members of Uganda’s intelligence services sit on the board to monitor civil society activity. In this way, organizations are treated as possible national security threats.

The NGO Act as amended in 2006 restricts operations of nongovernmental organizations through lengthy and convoluted registration requirements and confusing procedures that groups are expected to comply with in order to receive permission to conduct research. In April 2009 eight organizations filed a challenge to the act before the Constitutional court, arguing that some provisions are inconsistent with the constitution, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the East African Community Treaty. The case is yet to be scheduled for a hearing.

A large number – perhaps thousands – of nongovernmental organizations operate in Uganda. The government allows some groups, particularly those involved in service delivery, significant latitude. But oil transparency, land, governance, and human rights groups have had an increasingly difficult time both carrying out their work and advocating for change in public forums, Human Rights Watch found.

In 2010, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the leadership of the nongovernmental organization sector negotiated an NGO Policy, a generally positive document that is an important step in addressing civil society concerns. But the government has not formally put the policy into operation and it holds no legal weight. Recent actions of the government’s NGO Board betray the aspirations of the policy. For example, in June 2012 the board told one organization working in governance and oil revenue transparency to desist from participating in “loose unregistered coalitions.” The NGO Policy specifically states that “clusters, networks or umbrella organizations” should be strengthened. The nongovernmental organization laws are silent on how or if coalitions must register as a legal entity.

In May 2012, the government ordered the NGO Board to carry out an investigation into the research of a group that documents unlawful land acquisitions. The board, acting outside its legal mandate, recommended that the organization should apologize for a report it issued about the subject and withdraw it, or face deregistration.

Another group working to help local communities receive fair compensation for land used in a large-scale electricity project was said to be “bordering on sabotage of government programs” by the government agency involved in the project. The government requires any organization to seek written permission from the permanent secretary of the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development each time they seek to visit the oil region, even though no law or publicly available policy requires them to seek such permission for the visits. These policies and practices obstruct access to affected communities and inhibit research and advocacy on oil accountability and transparency.

One representative of a nongovernmental group told Human Rights Watch that, “If your research raises a flag about people in power in this country, and how they are getting money out of this country, you are at serious risk. If you preach human rights, you are anti-development, an economic saboteur. You are not going to talk about land, oil, and good governance. This is just the beginning, but the tensions have been accumulating.”

At the same time, the government’s hostility to, and harassment of, Uganda’s LGBT community and its leadership is unabated. Government officials demonizing homosexuality are targeting a vulnerable community and deliberately misinforming the public, stirring hatred, and diverting donor attention. LGBT organizations are forced to operate on the margins because criminal laws on homosexuality prevent them from legally registering with the NGO Board. In the last few months two workshops focused on advocacy for the rights of LGBT people have been forcibly shut down by police at the behest of the minister of state for ethics and integrity, though there is no basis in law for such actions. In one instance activists were temporarily detained. The minister has stated unequivocally that organizations supporting the rights of LGBT people will be deregistered.

With the public’s frustrations with the ruling party leadership since the February 2011 elections, many see the government’s relentless focus on the alleged threat of homosexuality as a facile populist strategy to gain support. The LGBT community in Uganda remains deeply vulnerable to public harassment and violence. Organizations told Human Rights Watch that they fear that the hostility toward the LGBT community will be used to slander human rights organizations and undercut their work in all areas.

“It is not illegal in Uganda to discuss homosexuality or advocate for legal reform to decriminalize homosexuality, and government officials should not behave like it is,” Burnett said. “Government officials should remember they have a duty to protect the rights of all citizens, not only citizens they agree with.”

Given the increasingly challenging operating environment, staff and representatives of nongovernmental groups expressed serious concerns about their ability to maintain their research, advocate positions on controversial issues, and protect their employees. Representatives of these groups told Human Rights Watch that they fear they will not be able to carry out their mandates due to the hostile environment, and some acknowledged that they have begun to censor their own work to maintain some level of operations.

The government of Uganda should change its approach to all nongovernmental organizations, especially those working on sensitive or controversial subjects, and improve the operating space for all civil society, Human Rights Watch said. The government should rein in hostile rhetoric, amend laws that treat nongovernmental organizations as possible threats to national security, and publicly support the essential role of civil society. In turn, Uganda’s international partners, especially those considering funding the NGO Board, should actively voice their concerns about the need to end unjustifiable interference in civil society operations.

“The government should publicly support the essential role of civil society in stimulating public debate, rather than attacking this essential element of a human rights-respecting democracy,” Burnett said. “Uganda’s international partners should actively voice their concerns regarding these threats to nongovernmental groups, particularly given the escalation in government hostility toward freedom of expression and association.”

Related articles

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My second trip to Uganda was vastly different from the first, back in 2009.

In 2009, I was researching the LRA (Lord’s Resistance Army), Joseph Kony and the topical issue of children in armed conflict. I spent most of my time with former child soldiers in Northern Uganda and also made a promise to a group of child soldiers that I had become close to. The promise was to send 2 bicycles, to help them in their lives and in their rehabilitation and re-integration into society.

In 2012, I returned with a container of 400 bicycles, a mission I had been on since my trip there in 2009. I also set up a bike workshop and vocational training centre at Friends of Orphans in Pader, to help victims of the conflict.

As as far as my research on the war in Northern Uganda goes, I had learnt a lot more in the three years since my first visit. During that period I also traveled to the United States, where I interviewed people at the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, Black Star News, UNICEF, Resolve Uganda and many other organizations.

My knowledge of the conflict grew day by day, and when I returned to Uganda earlier this year, I had many new contacts to meet and learn from. These included notable and die-hard pro-democracy activists such as Barbara Allimadi, Shawn Mubiru, Anne Mugisha, opposition leaders Kizza Besigye, Nandala Mafabi and the honorable UPC President and former UN Under Secretary General for Children in Armed Conflict, Dr. Olara Otunnu. The experts and scholars I met with included Adam Branch from Makerere University, Leander Komakech, Okello Okello John Livingstone and Major General Pecas Kutesa – who all offered interesting and informative insights into the war and the state of democracy in Uganda. This really put a new spin on my take of the conflict, which had gradually been happening since the U.S trip in 2011. There were things that didn’t add up and it has taken a long time to work out the truth, as the media portrayal of the conflict is far from the facts I had uncovered. Uganda, I also discovered, was a democracy in disguise. On two occasions I was almost arrested, for no reason other than having a camera and having friends who are with the opposition. On my last day in Uganda, the day I was grabbed by the Police and threatened to be tear gassed, my friend Doreen was actually arrested and put into maximum security prison (Luzira), for voicing her opinion about the government and Museveni’s corrupt regime. I can tell you first hand, Uganda is not as free and democratic as it appears to be…

I still spend countless hours researching the conflict and the human rights situation in the country, as what has occurred in Northern Uganda has been so well concealed by the powers that be, and the international community at large, making it very difficult for the truth to be made visually transparent. The ‘Kony War‘, as it is often called, is not what it seems. That is not to say that Kony does not exist, nor that he has not committed the atrocities that are now well-known to the world, thanks to the viral video campaign from Invisible Children, Kony 2012. The perpetrator of this conflict is not Kony, as most would believe due to media and government deception and misinformation. Joseph Kony is sadly a product of the war, and should still however be made to face justice for his crimes. But, will that bring justice to the Acholi people of Northern Uganda, particularly if the other perpetrators are not also made to stand trial for their involvement in this human tragedy? How can justice prevail when impunity reigns?

This year I also spent much time in Uganda looking into how the conflict can be resolved and what is the best way forward. Is military intervention (which is what is currently happening) the correct road, or could truth and reconciliation through national dialogue and peace talks be a better and more effective option? There are many differing views on this subject, but on the ground, there seems to be only one. Invisible Children have called out loud and clear for U.S military intervention in the region, but where has that got them in the past, and for what reasons would they really be intervening? The fact of the matter is, why intervene now, when they really needed to intervene 10 years ago, when there was a serious humanitarian crisis going on. That’s when everyone was silent on what was going on. That’s when help was needed and voices needed to be heard. Now there is relative peace and the people in Uganda want to know, “WHY NOW?”.

‘Peace cannot be kept by force; it can only be achieved by understanding.’
Albert Einstein