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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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[UPDATE] GREAT NEWS, WE WON BEST FEATURE DOCUMENTARY FILM AT THE LOS ANGELES WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL FILM FESTIVAL! 

A Brilliant Genocide is screening this Sunday in L.A as a part of the LA Women’s International Film Festival! (see details below)

The next opportunity to see the film will not be until the 7th and 14th of April in Florida at the Palm Beach International Film Festival – Which the festival is promoting the film as their strongest and most powerful documentary this year!

If you care about human rights, about Uganda, Africa… about people, about truth, about justice…about humanity, and if you are in the California or Los Angeles area over Easter – then please attend the screening of A Brilliant Genocide this Sunday the 27th at 3.30pm at L.A Live Cinemas Hollywood.

Tickets $10 at http://www.lawomensfest.com or at the door at L.A Live, 9. (read about the festival below!)

#SpeakTruthToEmpower
#ABrilliantGenocide

ABG_LA_Invite_March27

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It is with pleasure and excitement that I announce the new title of our feature documentary… ‘A Brilliant Genocide‘.

ABG Logo 1
Pre-release teaser video from A Brilliant Genocide (scroll down) 

After 6 years filming, researching and editing this film, it has naturally evolved and transformed into a much different film that we set out to make in 2009 when it all began. 

We spent 3 years on the Joseph Kony / child soldier path – and the issue of children / child soldiers and other related  human rights abuses that are of much interest to us – we condemn the use of children in war, and the abuse of any child in any way, in any part of the world. 

However, the film is no longer 100% focused on the issue of children at war and Joseph Kony’s war in northern Uganda. The film remains very much connected with Kony and his use of child soldiers- but along our 6 year journey we found some completely untold ‘hidden’ stories that we felt were even more important to bring to light.

What we discovered and continue to discover, is that the world has been fooled, as I was 6 years ago, about Joseph Kony and his war in northern Uganda. There’s another side to this story that has never been told, and we have been on a journey for the past few years to find out the truth and the backstory that has received zero media attention – and even worse than that – the people responsible for these concealed human rights abuses, are those who have been supported by the west for 30 years, and who are still in office today. And the West is still today supporting the regime, while the regime continues to enjoy complete impunity for their crimes. 

We have discovered that Kony, although blamed for the war and the suffering, is just the tip of the ice-berg. We have found that Kony did have a reason, a very legitimate reason, for his rebellion, and although his acts of violence and child abductions are deplorable, and in no way justified – he has a reason for what he has done, and in his mind his actions are justified. The truth that no one who knows will admit – will bring many people – the bigger criminals and the puppeteers who have orchestrated this war and allowed it to continue – to account. The people we have spoken with call the situation in Uganda ‘a global conspiracy of silence’. And what we will be showing in our film is that indeed it has been, and sadly continues to be so today. 

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Artwork by Linda Zacks
Artwork by Linda Zacks

It’s been busy few months in the studio editing this documentary… With plans for completion by the end of the year!

Soon we will have a new title for the film and website/facebook/twitter etc – But you’ll have to wait a few months for that special release!

Right now we are working every single day and night to complete this film and get the story out there!

We currently have an 87 minute edit that’s working well. We are close – but still there’s lots of post production work to be done including animating maps, securing archive material, sound design, narration, translating, subtitling and much more – But nevertheless we are getting there! 

Please stay with us… Your support is integral to getting the truth told and to give not only a voice but also justice to the voiceless victims of a most tragic war in Northern Uganda that warrants the attention of the world.

Please also follow us on Facebook at wwww.facebook.com/childtroopers  as that’s where we update regularly!

Many thanks for your support!

 

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Bikes 4 Life in Uganda.

‘I dreamed a Dream’ Performed live by Patrick Roberts at Bikes 4 Life’s Annual Fundraiser in Melbourne.See bikes4life.com.au for more info on the great work by Bikes 4 Life.

I Dreamed a Dream – Uganda from Ebony Butler on Vimeo.

Follow Bikes 4 Life at www.facebook.com/bikes4lifeorg

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We have recently moved into new studio in Melbourne, as we enter the final stages of post-production.

 

We have partnered with filmmaker Bernie Ryan from Cyber City Films, and are working hard to complete our first edit for the documentary.

 

We haven’t yet updated anyone on our recent trip to Uganda, and will do that soon! It was an eventful trip and we accessed some people who we thought would have been impossible.

 

Victims of all sorts of atrocities, with an important story to tell.

 

eb and penny studio

 

 

 

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Our team are on the move again, traveling the globe in search of the truth and the untold, unreported stories about the war in northern Uganda.

This week we will be traveling to New Zealand to conduct interviews with Ugandan expats. We then plan to visit London early January to continue our research and interview exiled Ugandans who want to tell their story, that has been silenced and suppressed by international media for far too long.

To follow our journey please check into http://www.twitter.com/madvsbad and follow us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/childtroopers

Don’t forget to also subscribe to this blog and share it with friends!

Wish us luck, as the road ahead could get rough!

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For many years, international companies have benefited from the instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

via Clinton, Kagame and M23.

Excerpt from Article:

‘No blackmail, but persistence of a long term plan’ 

For many years, international companies have benefited from the instability in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Paul Kagame and Joweri Museveni have as well continued to plunder the country’s resources through a network of armed militias spread all over Eastern Congo.

There has been an official narrative which has been successively sold to the general opinion saying that the Rwandan genocide of April 1994 was a failure of the international community to protect lives in danger.

And for that reason, there are views particularly among Western scholars and foreign aid agencies claiming that the unconditional support to Rwanda over these last 18 years was a consequence of their guilt.

Either they are in denial of what they fully know, or they want to fool those among the general public who are ignorant of what has been going on.

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War on LRA Rebels Loses Momentum Report:  Institute for War and Peace Reporting

Efforts to defeat feared group run into trouble as regional governments fail to address threat.

ACR Issue 300, 17 Aug 11 – By Barrett Holmes Pitner – International Justice – ICC

Amid concerns that efforts to flush out Uganda’s Lord’s Resistance Army, LRA,

are flagging, the international community is facing stark challenges to defeat the

rebels as they continue to wreak havoc in the region. Since the United States

announced a long-awaited strategy to defeat the LRA and capture its leaders by

bolstering the military effort in the region, Uganda has instead withdrawn 700

troops that were pursuing the rebels and curtailed  funding for the operation.

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Child Troopers director Ebony Butler has taken her human rights documentary project to the United States of America, where she has found a whole new host of supporters and interested parties.

Ebony is currently working from Hollywood Los Angeles with her local crew where she is working on Child Troopers second phase of production. She is also being mentored by some leading industry players. The impressive list of international film and TV professionals she has mustered include Shine Global CEO Mark Fennessy and Australian born, LA based director Rod Hardy. Ebony’s has 5 official mentors who have each signed on as industry specific advisors to the young director for her debut feature documentary film Child Troopers, slated for release in 2012.

As of next week Ebony will leave Los Angeles for New York and Washington DC where she has scheduled in meetings and on camera interviews with some of the world’s leading humanitarian organizations, NGO‘S, political figures and other child soldier and human rights lobby groups. The line up includes: the United Nations, Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, OXFAM and Resolve (formerly known as Resolve Uganda). There are a number of other key players, analysts and experts in the arena of international and African politics, American foreign policy and geopolitics set to meet with Ebony over the next month to discuss her film and offer unique insights into the conflict in Uganda and beyond.

We will be back with more information about the progress Ebony and her crew are making soon.

Excited times ahead so stay tuned and if you like what we are doing please sign up to our blog and share this with friends or on your favorite social networking site!

Please also join us on twitter @atlanticstar233 and on facebook at facebook.com/childtroopers

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