Viral video shines spotlight on hunt for Kony

Ruthless Conscription of child soldiers An online video drawing attention to the case of alleged war criminal Joseph Kony has gone viral, and provoked lively debate over the activities of the US-based group which made it.The 30-minute film, which calls for the Ugandan rebel leader to be arrested, had attracted more than 15 million views by Thursday just three days after it was uploaded.A hashtag promoting the video was also trending worldwide on Twitter, with US celebrities Rihanna and P Diddy and Australian cricketer Shane Warne among those posting links to the film.KONY 2012 was posted by Invisible Children, a US non-profit organisation based in San Diego, California, but with offices in northern Uganda, where Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army has waged an armed campaign for more than two decades.Kony, who started an armed rebellion against the Ugandan government in the late 1980s, has been accused of abducting and forcing children to join the LRA, charges that led to his indictment by the International Criminal Court in 2005.The film opens with the statement: “Nothing is more powerful than an idea whose time has come.” The video depicts the use of child soldiers in conflicts and the suffering they have to endure.Although 802,562 viewers said they liked the video, 23,483 said they did not - and the success of the film has cast renewed scrutiny on Invisible Children’s work.On its website, Invisible Children says it “uses film, creativity and social action to end the use of child soldiers in Joseph Kony’s rebel war and restore LRA-affected communities in central Africa to peace and prosperity”.But the group has been accused of spending much of the money it raises from donors on staff renumeration and filmmaking, and Navigator, a US watchdog charity, has previously given it two out of four stars for financial transparency and accountability.One viewer of the film posted that people should “think twice before donating to KONY 2012”.