Angelina Jolie Hates Joseph Kony
Oscar-winning actress Angelina Jolie, who serves as Goodwill Ambassador to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, thinks Ugandan warload Joseph Kony is a vile person and said she felt inspired by so many young people "rising up" to demand his capture.
"I don't know anyone who doesn't hate Kony," Jolie told the U.K.'s The Telegraph at the Third Annual Women In The World Summit, an event to mark International Womens' Day, in New York City Thursday.
"He's an extraordinarily horrible human being who, you know…his time has come," she added.
Invisible Children, Inc., a San Diego-based nonprofit, launched a 30-minute documentary and campaign Monday to raise support for the arrest of Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army, a militia group that terrorized northern Uganda with torture, killings and kidnappings. In the past, he forced thousands of children to fight in his army.
The video, "Kony 2012," went viral within two days, catapulted by a social media-savvy younger audience, and now has almost 60 million views on YouTube. The film's wide and rapid international attention baffled diplomats and foreign affairs experts who have been working to raise awareness about the region for years, but "Kony 2012? has also drawn numerous criticisms surrounding Invisible Children's agenda.
This isn't the first time Jolie has been outspokenly angry against Kony.
Jolie sat down for an interview with "Nightline" anchor Cynthia McFadden in March 2010 to promote her film, "Salt," and talk about her humanitarian efforts.
In "Salt," Jolie stars as a CIA operative who is on the run from the agency after a defector accuses her of being a Russian spy. Jolie's character is forced to fend for herself, and to sort out who she can trust and who is evil.
At the time, Jolie told McFadden that there were a "few bad people," in real life, that "if I was left, you know, alone in a room with, I'd be tempted" to take down.
"Joseph Kony," she said. "I hate him."
Her anger even then towards Kony was a visceral reminder of just how tough the actress can be when she's fighting for a cause - Since 2001, Jolie has conducted humanitarian field missions in more than 20 countries, launched a foundation to help combat extreme poverty and protect natural resources, and adopted sons Maddox, 10, from Cambodia, and Pax, 8, from Vietnam, as well as daughter Zahara, 6, from Ethiopia.
"When I have to protect something in my life or when I've decided there's something I have to accomplish, I do, I do kind of push to the end and I don't take 'no' very well," Jolie told McFadden. "If it came down to something I had to do, I would believe in what I'm fighting for and I'm not afraid."