Egypt's Coptic Christian Pope Shenouda III dies

BBCNews, 17 March 2012 

Related Stories 

• Obituary: Pope Shenouda III

Pope Shenouda III led Egypt's Coptic
 Christian church for more than three
decades 

Egypt's Coptic Christian Pope Shenouda III has died at the age of 88, state television has announced.

The cause of his death was not reported, but the leader of the Middle East's largest Christian minority had suffered from health problems.

Coptic Christians make up 10% of Egypt's 80 million population.

After attacks on Coptic Christians in recent years, Pope Shenouda urged officials to do more to address the community's concerns.

Pope Shenouda led the church, one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, for four decades.

His political adviser Hany Aziz told Reuters news agency that Shenouda "died from complications in health and from old age".

He had returned recently to Egypt after seeking treatment abroad.

Pope Shenouda was born Nazeer Gayed into a devout Christian family on 3 August 1923 in Asyut, Upper Egypt, and became a monk in 1954, taking the name Shenouda.

After Pope Cyril died in 1971, Shenouda was enthroned as Pope of Alexandria.

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Rowan Williams resigns as archbishop of Canterbury

"Recalibration of Free Choice"–  Mar 3, 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Caroll) - (Subjects: (Old) Souls, Midpoint on 21-12-2012, Shift of Human Consciousness, Black & White vs. Color, 1 - Spirituality (Religions) shifting, Lose a Pope “soon”, 2 - Humans will change react to drama, 3 - Civilizations/Population on Earth,  4 - Alternate energy sources (Geothermal, Tidal (Pedal wheels), Wind), 5 – Financials Institutes/concepts will change (Integrity – Ethical) , 6 - News/Media/TV to change, 7 – Big Pharmaceutical company will collapse “soon”, (Keep people sick), (Integrity – Ethical)  8 – Wars will be over on Earth, Global Unity, … etc.)  - New !    

Uganda to head new military force to hunt for Kony

Reuters, by Jocelyn Edwards , Fri Mar 16, 2012

Leader of the Lord's Resistance Army Joseph Kony speaks to journalists

 after a meeting with U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland at Ri-Kwamba in 

southern Sudan November 12, 2006. (Credit: Reuters/Stuart Price)

(Reuters) - Uganda will head a new four-nation military force to capture Joseph Kony, the fugitive warlord whose global profile has soared in recent days due to a celebrity-backed Internet campaign to bring him to justice.

Announcing the creation of the regional military force on Friday, Ugandan Defense Minister Crispus Kiyonga said it had been conceived before the web campaign to hunt down Kony and the remnants of his Lord's Resistance Army took off.

"We are creating a brigade of about 5,000 troops, with the commander provided by Uganda," Kiyonga told reporters. The Democratic Republic of Congo, Central African Republic and South Sudan would take part in the force, he said.

One hundred U.S. military advisers deployed to Uganda were already helping hunt for Kony, but the task force needed more international support, Kiyonga said.

"We still need more help because these soldiers are moving big distances, most of the time on foot. If we could have airlift capacity it would make things faster," he said.

A video about Kony posted on YouTube by a California film-maker has been viewed by tens of millions of people, promoted on Twitter with tags that include #Kony2012 and endorsed by the likes of Justin Bieber, George Clooney and Oprah Winfrey.

The 30-minute video has brought unprecedented international attention to Kony, accused of terrorizing northern Uganda for two decades, but it rubbed raw scars when it was screened this week in Lira, a small town haunted by LRA atrocities.

Kony is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes, accused of abducting children to use as fighters and sex slaves and said to have a fondness for hacking off limbs.

Violence has subsided since 2005 and Kony is believed now to command only hundreds of followers, scattered in remote jungle hideouts.

The defense minister said the LRA had been reduced to a force of between 200 and 250 fighters split up into groups of about 10 and 20.

Kiyonga called for international assistance for the task force in the form of technology, equipment and wages for troops.

"Those who can help us should help us so that we move faster, with technology and equipment," he said. It was not clear when the force would start its operations.

(Editing by James Macharia and Robin Pomeroy)

Related Articles:

Man behind 'Kony 2012' arrested - for masturbating in public

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Joseph Kony’s ex-wives speak out

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Southern Africa form biggest conservation area

Associated Press, by ANGUS SHAW, 15 March 2012

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — Five Southern African nations on Thursday agreed to form the world's largest international conservation area in an effort to protect nearly half of the continent's elephants and a vast range of animals, birds and plants, many endangered by poaching and human encroachment.

At a ceremony in Namibia on Thursday government ministers from Angola, Botswana, Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe put their official seal on a cross-border treaty set to combine 36 nature preserves and surrounding areas.

The World Wildlife Fund said the countries will cooperate on measures to allow animals to roam freely across their borders over 170,000 square miles (440,000 square kilometers), almost the size of Sweden.

The Kavango Zambezi area includes the Victoria Falls World Heritage site in Zimbabwe and Botswana's famed swampland of the Okavango Delta.

Conservationists say historical migration routes of animals have been curtailed by national borders and man-made conflict. The decades-long civil war in Angola saw elephant herds, notoriously skittish to gunfire, fleeing far from their own habitats.

Already, Botswana is dismantling a fence on its border with Namibia after steps were taken to curb the spread of animal diseases.

According to the treaty put into effect Thursday, the Kavango Zambezi Transfrontier Conservation Area, known as KAZA, is home to about 45 percent of Africa's elephants. Along with other game animals, it has a rare heritage of at least 600 species of birds and 3,000 species of plants.

Previous attempts to set up massive cross-border conservancies in Africa have failed largely because impoverished local communities weren't engaged to help before governments signed up, said Chris Weaver, the World Wildlife Fund's regional director in Namibia.

"This is very different. It has a very strong community focus," he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

He said local communities are getting jobs and revenue from tourism in return for their role in protecting the environment.

An independent secretariat has been established to coordinate work between state wildlife authorities and community groups across the region. The German KFW development bank plowed $40 million into getting the KAZA conservancy up and running, Weaver said.

Last year, he said, rural Namibians earned some $700,000 from their own conservation-related activities. The money went toward further training, transportation, water supplies and improvements for schools and clinics.

Weaver said in recent history wildlife and nature preserves traditionally belonged to state governments. That had encouraged poachers to steal animals from the state, a distant and alien owner.

Now the KAZA conservancy offered tangible benefits across the board to communities and member countries.

"It is good news for conservation in southern Africa," Weaver said.

Ugandan group sues anti-gay pastor in US

Sexual Minorities Uganda says Scott Lively promoted violence against gay people there, contravening international law 

guardian.co.uk, David Smith in Johannesburg, Thursday 15 March 2012

Demonstrators carry a mock coffin calling attention to the story of murdered
Ugandan gay rights leader David Kato during a protest in Springfield, Massachusetts
Photograph: Don Treeger/AP 

A Ugandan gay rights group is suing an American Christian evangelist it accuses of waging a campaign of homophobia in the east African country.

Sexual Minorities Uganda filed the lawsuit against minister Scott Lively on Wednesday in Springfield, Massachusetts, under a statute that the group says allows non-citizens to launch US court actions for violations of international law.

Frank Mugisha, who heads the pressure group, said it was targeting Lively for "helping spread propaganda and violence" against gay people in Uganda.

"We hope that he will be held accountable for what he did in Uganda," Mugisha, who won the Robert F Kennedy human rights award last year, was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. "We want to send out a clear message to him and to others."

The complaint claims Lively issued a call in Uganda to fight against a "genocidal" and "paedophilic" gay movement which he "likened to the Nazis and Rwandan murderers". It seeks a judgment that Lively's actions violate international law and human rights.

Lively, of Abiding Truth Ministries, is one of three American pastors who visited Uganda in 2009 and whom gay activists accuse of helping draft the original version of its anti-homosexuality bill. Lively denies this.

The bill demanded the death penalty for certain homosexual acts such as gay people with Aids having sex. It has since been revamped to replace the death penalty with life imprisonment as a maximum sentence.

A 2009 video posted on YouTube shows Lively addressing a Ugandan audience, offering a theory of "the three causes of homosexuality" and insisting "you can overcome it".

Lively believes Aids is a fitting punishment for gay people, and that to legalise homosexuality would be to legalise child molestation and bestiality. He has written books including The Pink Swastika: Homosexuality in the Nazi Party, which argues that Nazism was inspired by homosexuality, and Seven Steps to Recruit-Proof Your Child: A Parent's Guide to Protecting Children from Homosexuality and the "Gay" Movement.

On Wednesday Lively described the legal action as absurd and frivolous. He said in an email to AP that he had never advocated violence against gay people. He said he had preached against homosexuality but advised therapy, not punishment.

Lively claimed his words had been taken out of context. "Most of the ostensibly inflammatory comments attributed to me are from selectively edited video clips of my 2009 seminars in Kampala," he said. "I challenge the plaintiffs and their allies to publish the complete footage of the seminar on the internet. They will not do this or their duplicity would be exposed."

Lively also told AP in November that he advised the Ugandan parliament to focus on rehabilitation and not punishment. He said he did not oppose the criminalisation of homosexuality but said imprisonment and the death penalty are too harsh.

About 70 protesters marched half a mile from the US district court in Springfield to Lively's business, the Holy Grounds coffee house. They dressed in black and beat drums, carrying signs with the names of persecuted Ugandans and coffins to symbolise death allegedly due to persecution. The group spent about 10 minutes in front of the coffee house, leaving white flowers there.

The New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights (CCR) group filed the suit on behalf of Sexual Minorities Uganda. CCR lawyer Pam Spees said it also sought monetary damages.

The suit against Lively, whose Springfield church is known as Redemption Gate Mission Society, is part of wide-ranging legal action Ugandan gay groups are considering against individuals they consider hostile to the rights of gay people.

Related Articles:

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About the Challenges of Being a Gay Man – Oct 23, 2010 (Saint Germain channelled by Alexandra Mahlimay and Dan Bennack)

“ ... You see, your Soul and Creator are not concerned with any perspective you have that contradicts the reality of your Divinity – whether this be your gender, your sexual preference, your nationality – or your race, ethnicity, religious beliefs, or anything else.The only identity that has any fundamental or lasting relevance to your Soul is your Divinity. Any other way you may label or identify yourself is transitory. It changes from one incarnation to the next. ..."

"The Akashic System" – Jul 17, 2011 (Kryon channelled by Lee Carroll) - (Subjects: Religion, God, Benevolent Design, DNA, Akashic Circle, (Old) Souls, Gaia, Indigenous People, Talents, Reincarnation, Genders, Gender Switches, In “between” Gender Change, Gender Confusion, Shift of Human Consciousness, Global Unity,..... etc.)

"Perceptions of God" – June 6, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Quantum Teaching, The Fear of God, Near-death Experience, God Becomes Mythology, Worship, Mastery, Intelligent Design, Benevolent Creator, Global Unity.... etc.) (Text version)

“.. For centuries you haven't been able to think past that box of what God must be like. So you create a Human-like God with wars in heaven, angel strife, things that would explain the devil, fallen angels, pearly gates, lists of dos and don'ts, and many rules still based on cultures that are centuries old. You create golden streets and even sexual pleasures as rewards for men (of course) - all Human perspective, pasted upon God. I want to tell you that it's a lot different than that. I want to remind you that there are those who have seen it! Why don't you ask somebody who has had what you would call a near-death experience? 

Exclusive: secret Assad emails lift lid on life of leader's inner circle

guardian.co.uk, Robert Booth, Mona Mahmood and Luke Harding, Wednesday 14 March 2012 

• Messages show Bashar al-Assad took advice from Iran

• Leader made light of promised reforms

• Wife spent thousands on jewellery and furniture

Bashar al-Assad apparently made light of reforms he had promised in
an attempt to defuse the Syrian crisis. Photograph: AFP/Getty Images 

Bashar al-Assad took advice from Iran on how to handle the uprising against his rule, according to a cache of what appear to be several thousand emails received and sent by the Syrian leader and his wife.

The Syrian leader was also briefed in detail about the presence of western journalists in the Baba Amr district of Homs and urged to "tighten the security grip" on the opposition-held city in November.

The revelations are contained in more than 3,000 documents that activists say are emails downloaded from private accounts belonging to Assad and his wife, Asma.

The messages, which have been obtained by the Guardian, are said to have been intercepted by members of the opposition Supreme Council of the Revolution group between June and early February.

The documents, which emerge on the first anniversary of the rebellion that has seen more than 8,000 Syrians killed, paint a portrait of a first family remarkably insulated from the mounting crisis and continuing to enjoy a luxurious lifestyle.

They appear to show the president's wife spending thousands of dollars over the internet for designer goods while he swaps entertaining internet links on his iPad and downloads music from iTunes.

As the world watched in horror at the brutal suppression of protests across the country and many Syrians faced food shortages and other hardships, Mrs Assad spent more than £10,000 on candlesticks, tables and chandeliers from Paris and instructed an aide to order a fondue set from Amazon.

The Guardian has made extensive efforts to authenticate the emails by checking their contents against established facts and contacting 10 individuals whose correspondence appears in the cache. These checks suggest the messages are genuine, but it has not been possible to verify every one.

The emails also appear to show that:

• Assad established a network of trusted aides who reported directly to him through his "private" email account – bypassing both his powerful clan and the country's security apparatus.

• Assad made light of reforms he had promised in an attempt to defuse the crisis, referring to "rubbish laws of parties, elections, media".

• A daughter of the emir of Qatar, Hamid bin Khalifa al-Thani, this year advised Mrand Mrs Assad to leave Syria and suggested Doha may offer them exile.

• Assad sidestepped extensive US sanctions against him by using a third party with a US address to make purchases of music and apps from Apple's iTunes.

• A Dubai-based company, al-Shahba, with a registered office in London is used as a key conduit for Syrian government business and private purchases by the Syrian first lady.

Activists say they were passed username and password details believed to have been used by the couple by a mole in the president's inner circle. The email addresses used the domain name alshahba.com, a conglomerate of companies used by the regime. They say the details allowed uninterrupted access to the two inboxes until the leak was discovered in February.

The emails appear to show how Assad assembled a team of aides to advise him on media strategy and how to position himself in the face of increasing international criticism of his regime's attempts to crush the uprising, which is now thought to have claimed more than 10,000 lives.

Activists say they were able to monitor the inboxes of Assad and his wife in real time for several months. In several cases they claim to have used fresh information to warn colleagues in Damascus of imminent regime moves against them.

The access continued until 7 February when a threatening email arrived in the inbox thought to be used by Assad after the account's existence was revealed when the Anonymous group separately hacked into a number of Syrian government email addresses. All correspondence to and from the two addresses ceased on the same day.

The emails appear to show that Assad received advice from Iran or its proxies on several occasions during the crisis. Ahead of a speech in December his media consultant prepared a long list of themes, reporting that the advice was based on "consultations with a good number of people in addition to the media and political adviser for the Iranian ambassador".

The memo advised the president to use "powerful and violent" language and to show appreciation for support from "friendly states". It also advised that the regime should "leak more information related to our military capability" to convince the public that it could withstand a military challenge.

The president also received advice from Hussein Mortada, an influential Lebanese businessman with strong connections to Iran. In December, Mortada urged Assad to stop blaming al-Qaida for an apparent twin car bombing in Damascus, which took place the day before an Arab League observer mission arrived in the country. He said he had been in contact with Iran and Hezbollah in Lebanon who shared the same view.

"It is not out of our interest to say that al-Qaida organisation is behind the operation because this claim will [indemnify] the US administration and Syrian opposition," Mortada wrote not long after the blasts. "I have received contacts from Iran and Hezbollah in my role as director of many Iranian-Lebanese channels and they directed me to not mention that al-Qaida is behind the operation. It is a blatant tactical media mistake."

In another email Mortada advised the president that the regime needed to take control of public squares between 3pm and 9pm to deny opposition groups the opportunity to gather there.

Iran and Hezbollah have been accused throughout the year-long uprising of providing on-the-ground support to the regime crackdown, including sending soldiers to fight alongside regime forces and technical experts to help identify activists using the internet. Iran and Hezbollah both deny offering anything more than moral support.

Among others who communicated with the president's account were Khaled al-Ahmed, who it is believed was tasked with providing advice about Homs and Idlib. In November Ahmed wrote to Assad urging him to "tighten the security grip to start [the] operation to restore state control and authority in Idlib and Hama countryside".

He also told Assad he had been told that European reporters had "entered the area by crossing the Lebanese borders illegally". In another mail he warned the president that "a tested source who met with leaders of groups in Baba Amr today said that a big shipment of weapons is coming from Libya will arrive to the seashores of one of the neighbouring states within three days to be smuggled to Syria."

Link to this video

The emails offer a rare window on the state of mind of the isolated Syrian leader, apparently lurching between self-pity, defiance and flippancy as he swapped links to amusing video footage with his aides and wife. On one occasion he forwards to an aide a link to YouTube footage of a crude re-enactment of the siege of Homs using toys and biscuits.

Throughout 2011, his wife appears to have kept up regular correspondence with the Qatar emir's daughter, Mayassa al-Thani. But relations appear to have chilled early this year when Thani directly suggested that the Syrian leader step down.

"My father regards President Bashar as a friend, despite the current tensions – he always gave him genuine advice," she wrote on 11 December. "The opportunity for real change and development was lost a long time ago. Nevertheless, one opportunity closes, others open up – and I hope its not too late for reflection and coming out of the state of denial."

A second email on 30 January was even more forthright and including a tacit offer of exile. "Just been following the latest developments in Syria … in all honesty – looking at the tide of history and the escalation of recent events – we've seen two results – leaders stepping down and getting political asylum or leaders being brutally attacked. I honestly think this is a good opportunity to leave and re-start a normal life.

"I only pray that you will convince the president to take this an opportunity to exit without having to face charges. The region needs to stabilise, but not more than you need peace of mind. I am sure you have many places to turn to, including Doha."

The direct line of reporting to Assad, independent of the police state's military and intelligence agencies, was a trait of his father, Hafez al-Assad, who ruled Syria for three decades until his death in 2000 ushered the then 36-year-old scion into the presidency.

Assad Sr was renowned for establishing multiple reporting lines from security chiefs and trusted aides in the belief that it would deny the opportunity for any one agency to become powerful enough to pose a threat to him.

His son has reputedly shown the same instincts through his decade of rule. The year-long uprising against his decade of rule appeared to be faltering this week as forces loyal to Assad retook the key northern city of Idlib.

Much of Assad's media advice comes from two young US-educated Syrian women, Sheherazad Jaafari and Hadeel al-Al. Both regularly stress to Assad, who uses the address sam@alshahba, the importance of social media, and particularly the importance of intervening in online discussions. At one point, Jaafari boasts that CNN has fallen for a nom-de-guerre that she set up to post pro-regime remarks. The emails also reveal that the media team has convinced Twitter to close accounts that purport to represent the Syrian regime.

Several weeks after the sam@alshahba.com email was compromised in February, a new Syrian state television channel broadcast two segments denying that the email address had been used by Assad.

Opposition activists claim that this was a pre-emptive move to discredit any future leaking of the emails.

The US president, Barack Obama, signed an executive order last May imposing sanctions against Assad and other Syrian government officials.

In addition to freezing their US assets, the order prohibited "US persons" from engaging in transactions with them. The EU adopted similar measures against Assad last year. They include an EU-wide travel ban for the Syrian president and an embargo on military exports to Syria.

Fawaz Akhras apparently gave his son-in-law and Syrian president,

 Bashar al-Assad, advice via email on how to handle the media during

the uprising. Photograph: Louai Beshara/AFP/Getty Images

Related Articles:

Activists angered by Assad email revelations

Assad emails: father-in-law gave advice from UK during crackdown

Pro-regime rally marks anniversary of uprising

Assad emails: the key correspondents

Moroccans demand change to Islamic penal code after girl, 16, kills herself because judge forced her to marry her RAPIST

Daily Mail, by Lee Moran, 14 March 2012

• Online petition after case of teen who swallowed rat poison in protest
• Women's rights activist describes horror as 'recurring phenomenon'
• 'Law protects public morality but not the individual'

Angry Moroccans are demanding a change to the country's strict Islamic penal code after a 16-year-old girl killed herself after being forced to marry her rapist.

An online petition, a Facebook page and countless tweets expressed horror over the suicide of Amina Filali, who swallowed rat poison on Saturday in protest at her marriage to the man who raped her a year earlier.

Article 475 of the Moroccan penal code allows for the 'kidnapper' of a minor to marry his victim to escape prosecution, and it has been used to justify a traditional practice of making a rapist marry his victim to preserve the honour of the woman's family.

Sentenced: A judge in Tangier (pictured) ordered the rapist to
marry his victim as 'punishment' 

'Amina, 16, was triply violated, by her rapist, by tradition and by Article 475 of the Moroccan law,' tweeted activist Abadila Maaelaynine.

Abdelaziz Nouaydi, who runs the Adala Assocation for legal reform, said a judge can recommend marriage only in the case of agreement by the victim and both families.

'It is not something that happens a great deal - it is very rare,' he said, but admitted that the family of the victim sometimes agrees out of fear that she won't be able to find a husband if it is known she was raped.

The marriage is then pushed on the victim by the families to avoid scandal, said Fouzia Assouli, president of Democratic League for Women's Rights.

'It is unfortunately a recurring phenomenon,' she said.'We have been asking for years for the cancellation of Article 475 of the penal code which allows the rapist to escape justice.'

The victim's father said in an interview with an online Moroccan newspaper that it was the court officials who suggested from the beginning the marriage option when they reported the rape.

'The prosecutor advised my daughter to marry, he said 'go and make the marriage contract'," said Lahcen Filali in an interview that appeared on goud.ma Tuesday night.

Rape victim: Gulnaz, who was pardoned by the Afghan
president  earlier this month, with her daughter in a Kabul
jail. She was today released 

In many societies, the loss of a woman's virginity outside of wedlock is a huge stain of honour on the family.

In many parts of the Middle East, there is a tradition whereby a rapist can escape prosecution if he marries his victim, thereby restoring her honour. There is a similar injunction in the Old Testament's Book of Deuteronomy.

Morocco updated its family code in 2004 in a landmark improvement of the situation of women, but activists say there's still room for improvement.

In cases of rape, the burden of proof is often on the victim and if she can't prove she was attacked, a woman risks being prosecuted for debauchery.

'In Morocco, the law protects public morality but not the individual,' said Assouli, adding that legislation outlawing all forms of violence against women, including rape within marriage, has been stuck in the government since 2006.

According to the father's interview, the girl was accosted on the street and raped when she was 15, but it was two months before she told her parents.

He said the court pushed the marriage, even though the perpetrator initially refused. He only consented when faced with prosecution. The penalty for rape is between five and 10 years in prison, but rises to 10 to 20 in the case of a minor.

He said Amina complained to her mother that her husband was beating her repeatedly during the five months of marriage but that her mother counselled patience.

A Facebook page called 'We are all Amina Filali' has been formed and an online petition calling for Morocco to end the practice of marrying rapists and their victims has already gathered more than 1,000 signatures.

The incident throws more light on the way women are treated in Islamic countries.

Last year a woman in Afghanistan, 21-year-old Gulnaz, was jailed for 'adultery by force' after she was brutally raped by her husband's cousin.

Her attacker was jailed for seven years for the crime that left her pregnant.

A global outrage saw the President of Afghanistan personally pardoning her and releasing her from Kabul's Badam Bagh jail, with no pre-conditions.

Related Articles:

Morocco protest against rape-marriage law

Jailed Afghan rape victim freed with no pre-conditions


"Perceptions of God" – June 6, 2010 (Kryon channeled by Lee Carroll) (Subjects: Quantum Teaching, The Fear of God, Near-death Experience, God Becomes Mythology, Worship, Mastery, Intelligent Design, Benevolent Creator, Global Unity.... etc.) (Text version)

“.. For centuries you haven't been able to think past that box of what God must be like. So you create a Human-like God with wars in heaven, angel strife, things that would explain the devil, fallen angels, pearly gates, lists of dos and don'ts, and many rules still based on cultures that are centuries old. You create golden streets and even sexual pleasures as rewards for men (of course) - all Human perspective, pasted upon God. I want to tell you that it's a lot different than that. I want to remind you that there are those who have seen it! Why don't you ask somebody who has had what you would call a near-death experience?

Kony 2012 video screening met with anger in northern Uganda

Victims of the LRA slam film which went viral across world as not representing them and say campaign's merchandise is offensive 

guardian.co.uk, Rosebell Kagumire in Lira and David Smith in Johannesburg, Wednesday 14 March 2012

People watching a screening of Kony 2012 in Lira, northern Uganda, an
 area which was ravaged by the LRA. Photograph: James Akena/Reuters 

It had been viewed more than 77m times around the world, but not by those who know the Joseph Kony best: his victims in northern Uganda.

That changed on Tuesday night when thousands flocked to watch Kony 2012, the video made by a US charity urging a grassroots campaign against the fugitive warlord that has gone viral.

The film was projected on to an ersatz cinema screen fashioned from a white sheet, held up by metal poles, in a town park. The reaction? Puzzlement, then anger, which boiled over into scuffles and stone-throwing that sent organisers fleeing for cover.

There was particular criticism of the Stop Kony campaign's use of merchandise, such as bracelets and T-shirts, which victims said they find offensive.

"People were very angry about the film," said Victor Ochieng, director of a local charity, the African Youth Initiative Network (Ayinet), which arranged the screening. "They were all saying, 'This is not about us, it does not reflect our lives'."

Ochieng said he had wanted to provide an opportunity for victims to see the film made by the charity Invisible Children, mindful that less than 2% of Ugandans have internet access.

The video, posted on YouTube on 5 March and narrated by one of Invisible Children's founders, Jason Russell, had drawn the support of celebrities including George Clooney and Angelina Jolie, but provoked criticism for oversimplifying the conflict and not making clear that Kony was driven out of Uganda several years ago.

Before sunset on Tuesday two metal rods were hammered into dry dirt and grass and a white sheet hoisted to create an open-air cinema in the mayor's gardens in the centre of Lira, 220 miles north of the capital, Kampala.

Word about the "premiere" spread on local radio, drawing a crowd on foot and bicycle that grew over several hours and was estimated at more than 35,000 by Ochieng, though others put it at more like 5,000.

The expectant, excited spectators, many of whom cannot speak English, included victims who have been left scarred and maimed by Kony's atrocities.

But Ochieng, whose own father and brother were abducted by Kony's Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), said on Wednesday: "Reacting to the film, there was a strong sense that the video was definitely not produced for an African audience, and that it was not sensitive enough to the victims.

"It was very hurtful for them and their families to see posters, bracelets and buttons, all looking like slick campaign ads of the person most responsible for their shattered lives. One young man who lost four brothers and one of his arms said afterwards: 'How can anybody expect me to wear a T-shirt with Kony's name on it?'"

He added: "For all the victims, the attempt to make Kony famous so as to prop up public support for his apprehension is laudable but the way this goal is pursued in the video is inappropriate and ignores their feelings.

"That fame is not what Kony deserves for causing so much suffering was one overwhelming reaction. People were asking: Why give such criminals celebrity status? Why not prioritise addressing the plight of the victims whose sufferings are visible?"

The screening ended amid jeers and scuffles, with some angry viewers throwing stones. Ayinet has decided to suspend planning screenings of Kony 2012 in other parts of northern Uganda indefinitely due to the hostile reaction.

Emmy Okello, a radio journalist in Lira, said: "I cannot understand the intention of this video. It is difficult to account to us if you are not including local people. What has angered people is that the video is about a white person, not about the victims. All of them came here hoping to see video that tells their story."

Okello Jifony, who was forced to fight under Kony for 18 months, told Reuters: "We expected serious action, Americans fighting Kony like in a real movie."

He added: "Why didn't they use the real victims in this film?"

On Wednesday there were calls in Uganda to ban the campaign's "Stop Kony" T-shirts from entering the country. One caller to a radio phone-in said: "The government must protect us victims not only from Kony but also from things that hurt us like these T-shirts.

"And as people of northern Uganda we will not accept anyone to cross Karuma (a bridge across the Nile that connects north to central Uganda) with that T-shirt."

Al-Jazeera reporter Malcolm Webb blogged: "One woman I spoke to made the comparison of selling Osama Bin Laden paraphernalia post 9/11 – likely to be highly offensive to many Americans, how ever well intentioned the campaign behind it."

Kony, a self-proclaimed mystic, is wanted by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity.

On Tuesday a Congolese general said Kony and other LRA leaders have been chased out of the Democratic Republic of Congo to the neighbouring Central African Republic and no longer pose a threat in his country.

General Jean Claude Kifwa, in charge of fighting the LRA in Congo, told journalists: "We have reduced the capacity of the LRA. For us it's no longer an issue of defence. It's a public order issue."

The comment follows a complaint by nearby Uganda that Congo was obstructing its US-backed hunt for Kony.

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