Documentary on child soldiers to premiere at the Oslo Human Rights House

On 9 March, Catharina Vogt, a board member of Amnesty International, co-located with the Norwegian Human Rights House in Oslo, will premiere her film ‘Innocent’ at the house, and with key politicians present. The shooting for the film is as fresh as January 2005, and Margaret Laker, the mother of the child portrayed in the film, will attend the premiere. (23-FEB-05)

‘Innocent’ is a documentary about how North Ugandan children have been affected by the almost 19-year long war that has ravaged this central region of Africa, explains Vogt (left). It is named after a boy called Innocent, who is the son of Laker and the Lord’s Resistance Army’s second in command Sam Kolo. Laker was originally kidnapped to be Kolo’s wife’ and has since brought him two children. Kolo was, until last week, when he came out of the bush, LRA’s spokesperson, and a key player in the current attempts to facilitate the right conditions for a permanent ceasefire and lasting peace between the LRA and the Ugandan government forces UPDF.

The story is still evolving
According to the most recent reports from Uganda, Kolo was rescued by UPDF just as LRA was about to kill him. Prior to this latest turn of events, though, Laker and her daugher Winnie were sent out of the bush to look after Innocent, her son with Kolo, who was shot and injured in an ambush between the LRA and UPDF last December. -The shooting for my film was done in and around Gulu town, a regional centre in the North of Uganda, in December 2004 and January 2005, says Vogt. The launch will be co-hosted by Amnesty International and Save the Children Norway, an organisation well known for its expertise on the issue of child soldiers. 

Book revenue to support rehabilitation of child soldiers and sex slaves
The highest profile politician to attend the forthcoming premiere is Kristin Halvorsen, the leader of the Socialist Left, and also an outspoken member of the Norwegian parliament’s standing committee on foreign affairs. During her years in parliament, Halvorsen has made herself a well-known campaigner for human rights. Moreover, a certain percentage of the revenue from her most recent book, a political auto-biography called ‘Rett fra hjertet,’ (‘Straight from the heart’) will be transferred to Save the Children’s work to rehabilitate Ugandan children and youth who have been captured and served as either soldiers or sex slaves for the LRA. 

HRH facilitates US screening
Niels Jacob Harbitz, Human Rights House Foundation’s Project Manager for East Africa, has already facilitated contact between Vogt and Nozipo Maraire, the initiator of what looks to become an annual conference on the uses and consequences of being a child soldiers, the conference that Harbitz spoke to at Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government last December. -Both Vogt and Maraire were excited with the prospect of screening ‘Innocent’ at this year’s conference, most likely to take place in October.