:00:16. > :00:23.This is Joseph Kony, one of the world's most wanted men. I am not
:00:23. > :00:27.guilty. I am not guilty. As one of the most prolific killers in
:00:27. > :00:31.history, Kony and his commanders are wanted for crimes against
:00:31. > :00:37.humanity. He is a psychopath and he has got multiple personality
:00:37. > :00:42.disorder. Said to have supernatural powers, he has ruined the lives of
:00:42. > :00:48.millions. All I thought was that I would lose my life. That would be
:00:48. > :00:52.the end of May. He turns children into curlers and ordered his
:00:53. > :01:01.commanders to rape schoolgirls. Are you proud of yourself? I am not
:01:01. > :01:08.proud. I am only disappointed with my life. Now he is hunted by the UN
:01:08. > :01:10.and thousands of African troops backed by the planet's most
:01:10. > :01:14.powerful military machine. advisers will continue their
:01:14. > :01:22.efforts to bring this mad man to justice and save lives. This is
:01:22. > :01:27.Joseph Kony. The black guy? And he is the target of a global campaign
:01:27. > :01:34.demanding that he be captured this year. If we succeed, we changed the
:01:34. > :01:39.course of human history. Tonight, Panorama joins the hunt for the
:01:39. > :01:45.leader of what Kony calls his Lord's Resistance Army, and asks
:01:45. > :01:49.why after 25 years of carnage, this notorious warlord is still at large.
:01:49. > :01:59.I cannot tell you if it will be tomorrow, in a month, but
:01:59. > :02:15.
:02:15. > :02:22.This is the frontline of the hunt for Joseph Kony. The jungle almost
:02:22. > :02:27.the size of France. After a global campaign clamouring for the capture
:02:27. > :02:30.of Kony this year, as an African journalist I want to know what is
:02:30. > :02:36.being done on the ground to bring to justice the man who has
:02:36. > :02:44.terrorised millions. I joined the Ugandan army unit hunting him in
:02:44. > :02:50.the jungles of the Central African Republic. Uganda is being backed by
:02:50. > :02:55.American special forces. But still Kony remains one step ahead. We are
:02:55. > :02:59.doing whatever it takes to make sure that we capture or kill Kony.
:02:59. > :03:05.Our last intelligence indicated that Joseph Kony is in the Central
:03:05. > :03:15.African Republic. Kony might be anywhere because we do not have any
:03:15. > :03:18.mechanism of tracking Kony himself. If Joseph Kony, the leader of the
:03:18. > :03:24.Lord's Resistance Army, the LRA, had been 20 ft in front of me, I
:03:24. > :03:28.would not have seen him. This is a real jungle. It is in the middle of
:03:28. > :03:33.nowhere. Searching for anyone here, particularly a man who has mastered
:03:33. > :03:39.the tactics of the bush, is like searching for a needle in a
:03:39. > :03:44.haystack. Do you have any information whether the LRA are
:03:44. > :03:49.around this area? Is that why you are going there? The LRA right now,
:03:49. > :03:55.we do not know their position. Vicky Barr rotating in the general
:03:55. > :04:00.area. One day we will come across the track. -- they keep rotating in
:04:00. > :04:10.the general area. This camp was abandoned by the LRA just two weeks
:04:10. > :04:10.
:04:10. > :04:15.earlier. This is the enemy defence. It was discovered after a rebel
:04:15. > :04:19.defector led the Ugandans here. This was the headquarters. The
:04:19. > :04:22.overall commander was clear. They avoid movement from their position.
:04:22. > :04:31.That is why they can hide themselves here for more than a
:04:31. > :04:37.month. It is estimated 50 to 60 of Kony's fighters lived here, plus
:04:37. > :04:44.women and children. This child was one of them. Adam, said by his
:04:44. > :04:51.mother to be Joseph Kony's five- year-old son. Abducted aged 13,
:04:51. > :04:56.Doreen Abango escaped just 10 days earlier. TRANSLATION: I saw that I
:04:56. > :05:00.was wasting my life so I took the opportunity to come back. I started
:05:00. > :05:06.walking at night with my child, moving in such a way I did not
:05:06. > :05:11.leave any tracks. A fire was found, I would be killed. -- if I was
:05:12. > :05:17.found. Doreen told me she had not seen Kony for five years. She is
:05:17. > :05:26.one of dozens of women that he is accused of raping. He takes women
:05:26. > :05:30.in terms. Women go to him in terms. That is the nature of war. As women
:05:30. > :05:40.we do not have the power to refuse. We are afraid and want to protect
:05:40. > :05:44.
:05:44. > :05:47.The Ugandans believe that Joseph Kony is in the Central African
:05:47. > :05:52.Republic, but the Lord's Resistance Army that he leads are thought to
:05:52. > :06:00.be constantly on the move between here, Sudan in the North, and the
:06:00. > :06:04.Democratic Republic of Congo, which continues to suffer at their hands.
:06:04. > :06:10.Here, terrified families have sought centuries in refugee camps
:06:10. > :06:19.since the LRA started attacking in 2008. I headed to the nearest camp.
:06:19. > :06:29.300 miles South East of the Ugandan position. The first people started
:06:29. > :06:29.
:06:29. > :06:37.coming in the month of March. people feel safe because delighted
:06:37. > :06:44.macro and Congolese army are based nearby. -- because the UN and
:06:44. > :06:48.Congolese army are based nearby. There are 10,000 people in camps.
:06:48. > :06:53.The terror that the LRA cause in this region is totally
:06:53. > :07:00.disproportionate to their numbers. The UN estimates there are only 100
:07:00. > :07:04.fighters left, but they continue to evade capture. They did not attack
:07:04. > :07:09.me but we ran because they killed people yes so we were afraid.
:07:09. > :07:13.you think you can go back home? until the raiding and the war is
:07:13. > :07:20.over. This is the worst thing that has ever happened to us and many of
:07:20. > :07:28.our belongings have been destroyed. Today almost half a million people
:07:28. > :07:37.remain displaced by the war. It is a fear creation tactic. People have
:07:37. > :07:47.got that fear. They have that Psycho thing in them. That is why
:07:47. > :07:54.
:07:54. > :08:02.TRANSLATION: The LRA kills. The LRA mutilates. The LRA mutilates. The
:08:02. > :08:09.LRA burns villages and public buildings. These people have had
:08:09. > :08:19.enough. We want Joseph Kony to leave this region. We want Joseph
:08:19. > :08:21.
:08:21. > :08:27.Kony to be arrested and for us to Kony's war in this region started
:08:28. > :08:33.only 300 miles away in Uganda in the late 1980s. Since then, the
:08:33. > :08:39.scale of atrocities has been apocalyptic. An estimated 100,000
:08:39. > :08:48.people have died in this conflict. At least 20,000 children have been
:08:48. > :08:56.abducted, many forced to be child soldiers or sex slaves. What
:08:56. > :09:02.exactly is Joseph Kony fighting for? Six years ago, after months of
:09:02. > :09:07.negotiation, the film crew were led deep into the jungle to find out.
:09:07. > :09:12.Surrounded by heavily armed fighters, this was to be the first
:09:12. > :09:18.and last time Kony gave a television interview. I am a
:09:18. > :09:27.freedom fighter who is fighting for freedom in Uganda. But I am not a
:09:27. > :09:35.terrorist. Kony denied murdering civilians and abducting children.
:09:35. > :09:39.found not guilty. I am not guilty. I am not guilty. And declaimed holy
:09:39. > :09:49.spirits were guiding him in his mission to overthrow the Ugandan
:09:49. > :09:50.
:09:50. > :09:54.Government. -- he claimed. Spirits will come to us. They come through
:09:54. > :10:01.me and they talk to the people, what to do. But if I am also
:10:01. > :10:06.fighting for the commandment of God, is that bad? It is not bad. I have
:10:06. > :10:11.had to go to a crime profiler, actually Scotland Yard, to try to
:10:11. > :10:16.understand this man that I have dealt with for a long time. Betty
:10:16. > :10:21.Bigombe is one of a long line of African leaders who tried and
:10:21. > :10:27.failed to talk Kony into making peace. His followers would say that
:10:27. > :10:35.he is extremely kind. He is extremely generous. And yet he
:10:35. > :10:40.would rape people, rip their tummy apart, or the killing in the most
:10:40. > :10:50.brutal manner. Who is this man? And the analysis, the report that came
:10:50. > :10:51.
:10:51. > :10:58.up, he is a psychopath. He has got a multiple personality disorder.
:10:58. > :11:04.find out more about Joseph Kony, I came to the place where he was born,
:11:04. > :11:12.Odek in northern Uganda. Here I found one of the last surviving
:11:12. > :11:16.members of his family, Gabriela Lakot, his older sister. This is
:11:16. > :11:20.the first time she had agreed to be interviewed. God has brought a
:11:20. > :11:26.curse on this family. This is our mother's lament. Kony has brought
:11:26. > :11:33.so much trouble on us, now everybody hates us. She was there
:11:33. > :11:38.when Joseph Kony came into this world. When my mother was giving
:11:38. > :11:43.birth, I came and supported her. As soon as Kony was born, he stood up
:11:43. > :11:52.on his two feet. Everyone was astonished and wondrous, saying
:11:52. > :11:59.this child is strange. This child is strange. When Kony reached his
:11:59. > :12:03.teens, he started hearing voices in his head. It seems to me that he
:12:03. > :12:11.had developed a mental problem. My father tried everything to help
:12:11. > :12:16.Kony, but in vain. Even a cow was sacrificed, but in vain.
:12:16. > :12:20.everyone in Odek believed that Kony was mentally ill. I found one of
:12:20. > :12:27.his old school friends, later to become one of the warlord's
:12:27. > :12:32.earliest disciples. The spirit had possessed Kony. That spirit, when
:12:32. > :12:42.it's time came to speak, it entered Kony and completely transformed its
:12:42. > :12:43.
:12:43. > :12:47.nature. These spirits would go on to haunt this region for decades.
:12:47. > :12:54.By 1986, Kony was a young man and many in Northern and Gander were
:12:54. > :12:57.rebelling against a new Government. -- northern Uganda. On this hill he
:12:58. > :13:03.would claim to hear the voices of spirits which his followers
:13:03. > :13:11.believed would predict the future. These voices would also later Mark
:13:11. > :13:14.Kony out as a leader of insurgents. People saw the potential and the
:13:14. > :13:21.possibility of a spirit that had possessed Kony helping them against
:13:21. > :13:31.a danger of death that they thought was coming to them. I am amongst
:13:31. > :13:31.
:13:31. > :13:35.the people that accepted. I am one of those. By the early 90s, the
:13:35. > :13:42.rebellion was over, but the profit did not put down his gun. Instead
:13:42. > :13:50.he turned it on his own people for abandoning the cause. Because of
:13:50. > :13:54.Kony and his Lord's Resistance Army was born. -- the cult of Kony.
:13:54. > :14:01.has been like a terrible fire. It has resulted in the last of many
:14:01. > :14:11.young people. I see the wrong in it and the pain associated with it. We
:14:11. > :14:25.
:14:25. > :14:33.A Ugandan Government camp created to protect local civilians from the
:14:33. > :14:38.Mayor was affected. They failed. -- from the LRA was affected. 301
:14:38. > :14:48.people were counted dead. Men, women and children. Slaughtered by
:14:48. > :14:50.
:14:50. > :14:56.Kony's troops in February, 2004. This woman was ordered to kill her
:14:56. > :15:01.husband. They asked me to cut his throat, but then a little child
:15:01. > :15:07.soldier told them not to us than our old lady to kill her husband.
:15:07. > :15:17.They took my husband and cut his throat while I watched. My child,
:15:17. > :15:21.
:15:21. > :15:24.his son, was also killed. Her son I think Kony was very conscious of
:15:24. > :15:29.what he was doing. I don't think the massacres that were committed
:15:29. > :15:33.by the LRA, they were the acts of individuals who are indisciplined
:15:33. > :15:38.but I think that they all came directly from his orders and I
:15:38. > :15:42.think he knew very well what he was ordering. Carlos Rodriguez was a
:15:42. > :15:48.priest at the time based the at the heart of where Kony was carrying
:15:48. > :15:52.out his massacres he listened in ands -- as the LRA
:15:52. > :15:56.leader talked on the radio to his troops. Sometimes he was very
:15:56. > :15:59.explicit in ordering massacres, laughing like a sadistic killer,
:15:59. > :16:03.saying, as he was laughing, that's very good, continue, you should
:16:03. > :16:12.kill even more, you should kill even elderly people, even children.
:16:12. > :16:17.Don't leave anybody alive. Industrial-scale killing, but Kony
:16:17. > :16:24.inflicted brutality on the living, too.
:16:24. > :16:34.Godfrey Okello - abducted aged ten. Ojok Patrick - abducted aged 14.
:16:34. > :16:34.
:16:34. > :16:40.Oriem Michael - abducted aged ten. Kony said it was war. If he sends
:16:40. > :16:44.you to fight, you have to fight. Much of the killing was carried out
:16:44. > :16:54.by child soldiers. Thousands and thousands of children were abducted
:16:54. > :16:58.by the LRA. Kony teaches, saying that all
:16:58. > :17:01.civilians have been trained. They have arrows to use on us. Civilians
:17:01. > :17:05.also use knives and all sorts of things to injure us, therefore, if
:17:05. > :17:14.we come across any civilians we mustn't allow them to survive
:17:14. > :17:21.because they are bad people. While young boys were forced to
:17:21. > :17:28.become killers, Kony also had plans for young girls.
:17:28. > :17:31.This was the dormitory where I was that night. Grace Acan was just 15
:17:31. > :17:39.years old when she was abducted along with 30 other schoolgirls
:17:39. > :17:43.from St Mary's convent, northern Ugandan in 1996. I thought that
:17:44. > :17:47.would be the end of my life because I have heard a lot about LRA.
:17:47. > :17:52.They're risky, they're dangerous, they can kill and when they get you
:17:52. > :17:57.that will be the end of you. girls were marched for two weeks
:17:57. > :18:01.north through the bush to an LRA camp in southern Sudan. There,
:18:01. > :18:05.Grace discovered her fate for the next eight years. The moment you
:18:05. > :18:10.begin your menstrual period, that's all. They will say now you are
:18:10. > :18:17.ready for a man. That's what they will do. It doesn't matter how old
:18:17. > :18:22.you are? It Doesn't matter. That's what they would do. Grace was
:18:22. > :18:26.forced to become a sex slave. She was repeatedly raped by this man,
:18:26. > :18:30.one of Kony's most senior commanders.
:18:30. > :18:37.These days, it's not hard to find Kenneth Banya, he lives just down
:18:38. > :18:42.the road from Grace. What I don't understand, why did
:18:42. > :18:47.Kony specifically give these girls to be raped by the older guys, the
:18:47. > :18:53.commanders, why? He was doing that because he wanted to maintain
:18:53. > :18:59.people in the bush, do you understand? He wanted to keep
:18:59. > :19:05.people in the bush, so that you don't think of other things.
:19:05. > :19:08.how do you think it is for youngsters like Grace who have gone
:19:08. > :19:17.through this without their permission? It is not only Grace
:19:17. > :19:23.alone, there are so many who are like Grace. I kept on thinking that
:19:23. > :19:28.now, how can I be given to such a man? It wasn't my choice. He was
:19:28. > :19:33.basically forcing you every week? If you say no, they beat you.
:19:33. > :19:40.that happen to you? I didn't want to be beaten with a panga because I
:19:40. > :19:44.saw with my eyes what it is to be beaten with a machete.
:19:44. > :19:53.Grace gave birth to two children, a son and a daughter, both fathered
:19:53. > :19:58.by Banya. Then, in July 2004, eight years
:19:58. > :20:06.after she was abducted, the Ugandan Army attacked the LRA camp where
:20:06. > :20:12.she was being held. The first bomb landed on my son, who was being
:20:13. > :20:22.carried by another girl, so they both died. I didn't see, but I was
:20:22. > :20:26.told. I didn't have a chance to see where his body was.
:20:27. > :20:35.Grace escaped with her daughter, Mercy, who is now nine years old.
:20:35. > :20:43.Her mother wants to put the past behind them. But is that possible?
:20:43. > :20:49.I wanted to know if the man who raped Grace showed any remorse.
:20:49. > :20:56.Why did you systematically rape a child like her, who was 15 years,
:20:56. > :21:04.over and over and over for years? Why did you do that? I did not rape
:21:04. > :21:08.Grace. In LRA, you are given by force, and the woman also she is
:21:08. > :21:13.forced. But Kenneth, if that was your child, 15 years old, somebody
:21:13. > :21:20.does that to her, how would you feel? I had no choice. No, you had
:21:20. > :21:25.a choice. I would be killed. It was a matter of either you die, or you
:21:26. > :21:32.agree and you live. Banya was captured in 2004 by the
:21:32. > :21:38.you goen Army. Despite his crimes, he was given an amnesty, and is now
:21:38. > :21:42.a free man. How many girls did you rape in the bush? I did not, only
:21:42. > :21:45.Grace and the other two. Only Grace and the other two. Yeah. Are you
:21:45. > :21:52.proud of yourself for what you did to those girls? I am not proud
:21:52. > :21:59.because if I was proud I would be talking proudly. I am only
:21:59. > :22:07.disappointed with my life. Kenneth Banya, have you forgiven
:22:07. > :22:11.him, will you forgive him? That is a very hard question. You know,
:22:11. > :22:21.forgiveness comes from the heart. I feel as if something has been taken
:22:21. > :22:21.
:22:21. > :22:26.out of me. Something valuable has been taken out of me.
:22:26. > :22:31.Back in the jungles of the central African Republic, the hunt for
:22:31. > :22:35.Joseph Kony continues. The noose seems to be tightening. A military
:22:36. > :22:41.offensive led by the Ugandan Army four years ago scattered his forces
:22:41. > :22:45.across the region. Now it's estimated there are only 450LRA
:22:45. > :22:50.fighters left. In May this year, just 60 miles
:22:51. > :23:00.from where we are, the Ugandans captured a senior LRA commander.
:23:00. > :23:03.This is his first television interview.
:23:03. > :23:07.The long length of time Kony and his people, including myself, has
:23:07. > :23:11.spent in the bush, and the hardship and experience we have gone through,
:23:11. > :23:21.is what has given Kony the knowledge and skills to survive in
:23:21. > :23:21.
:23:21. > :23:25.the bush up until now. For almost 20 years, Achellam, seen
:23:25. > :23:31.here, was one of Kony's right-hand men. Since his capture, he has
:23:31. > :23:37.given the Ugandans vital intelligence about LRA movements.
:23:37. > :23:42.Achellam is now calling for an end to the fighting. Many of my
:23:42. > :23:46.colleagues are still in the bush and they should come out. They must
:23:46. > :23:51.come out and there should be no more fighting. If Kony doesn't come
:23:51. > :24:01.out, let him remain alone in the bush.
:24:01. > :24:01.
:24:01. > :24:06.So why has Joseph Kony been allowed to wage this war for so long?
:24:06. > :24:10.The Ugandans are now spearheading the fight to capture him, but for
:24:10. > :24:20.many years one of the biggest obstacles to defeating Kony came
:24:20. > :24:21.
:24:21. > :24:26.from within their own army. Corruption on a massive scale.
:24:26. > :24:35.People were starting to profit from the war, so it became actually a
:24:36. > :24:41.business. Therefore, I think people had less interest in ending it. And
:24:41. > :24:44.that, I think, proved a very serious problem.
:24:44. > :24:51.Most shocking was the discovery that around half the army only
:24:51. > :24:55.existed on paper. The scandal became known as ghost soldiers. For
:24:55. > :25:01.years, officers had inflated troop numbers to pocket wages and profit
:25:01. > :25:08.from selling supplies destined for fictitious soldiers.
:25:08. > :25:14.This secret Government report from 2003 reveals a plague, every single
:25:14. > :25:18.Ugandan army unit was involved. So it was a huge, huge problem. How
:25:18. > :25:22.far up it went I really can't say. From what you are telling me it's
:25:22. > :25:27.clear that Kony has been a convenient enemy at the expense of
:25:27. > :25:34.the lives of ordinary people? without doubt. Without doubt.
:25:34. > :25:42.you think that corruption helped to drag this war to where it is today?
:25:42. > :25:47.Oh, yeah, it contributed. It contributed to prolonging the war.
:25:47. > :25:52.Despite past corruption, the you goen Army of today, backed by
:25:52. > :25:58.American Special Forces, is widely believed to be the most effective
:25:58. > :26:04.offensive force to end this war. But what about other African Armies
:26:04. > :26:14.hunting the LRA? Any other force, other than the
:26:14. > :26:18.Ugandan Army, the LRA doesn't fear. They only fear the Ugandan Army.
:26:18. > :26:22.Feared they may be, but the fractious politics of the region
:26:22. > :26:29.bars them from operating in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of
:26:29. > :26:33.Congo. And, according to the President, Yoweri Museveni, Uganda
:26:33. > :26:37.can't be expected to continue hunting Kony alone. Can you finish
:26:37. > :26:40.this war without western support? Where we are now is an
:26:40. > :26:47.international mission. It is not a domestic mission. We cannot be in
:26:47. > :26:54.an international mission on domestic resources. Why? It's up to
:26:54. > :26:59.the international community to help. An African Union Force of 5,000
:26:59. > :27:02.troops which could hunt for the LRA across the whole region was due to
:27:02. > :27:12.begin operations in March, but it hasn't happened. International
:27:12. > :27:13.
:27:13. > :27:20.funding has yet to materialise. Fransisco Madeira is the man asking
:27:20. > :27:25.for the money. You might call me a beggar, call me
:27:25. > :27:34.whatever you want, but the truth of the matter is that the resources
:27:34. > :27:38.are on one side, and the will is on the other and work has to be done.
:27:38. > :27:42.If a true co-operation were to take place among countries involved in
:27:42. > :27:50.this crisis, it would probably take a week to arrest Joseph Kony and to
:27:50. > :27:54.put an end to his abuses. I can Tellez you whether it's going
:27:54. > :27:58.to be tomorrow, the day after tomorrow or a month's time but
:27:58. > :28:04.eventually the man is going to go down. Will Joseph Kony ever
:28:04. > :28:09.surrender to face his accusers in the International Criminal Court?
:28:09. > :28:17.Kony is afraid. He is really afraid. He is afraid of the accusation
:28:17. > :28:21.against him in the Hague. Maybe the end has already been written.
:28:21. > :28:26.would tell me things like, you know, I know exactly how I am going to
:28:26. > :28:31.die. I am going to die like Hitler. One day people will wake up and
:28:31. > :28:36.they will find out I have been dead for sometime. Is it too much to
:28:36. > :28:39.hope that Kony's war may finally be drawing to an end? There is a