"Journalists Expose Ugandan Witch Doctors' Practices"

The probe into the Kanungu cult massacre has delayed because the Ministry of Internal Affairs has not secured funding for the commission set up to investigate the killings.
The Permanent Secretary in the ministry, Mr. Paul Bachengana, yesterday said his ministry had requisitioned the money from the finance ministry. He said, however, they were still waiting for a response. The commission was appointed last year by President Yoweri Museveni to investigate the mass murder of about 1,000 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God. The probe team is headed by Justice Augustine Kania.
About 600 of the believers were on March 17, 2000, incinerated in their church at Kanungu by their leaders who allegedly told them they were going to heaven.
Bodies of other believers killed earlier were found in mass graves under floors of the cult's buildings in Kanungu, Bushenyi and Kampala.
Bachengana said the inquiry, which will also look into the operations of other religious-based non-governmental organisations, needs a lot of money.
He said this is because it is expected to cover different districts where commissioners are expected to carry out investigations.
He said there were other constitutional issues, like the presidential elections, that had to be funded urgently before funds for other things could be got.

KAMPALA - A year after more than 700 Ugandans died at the hands of a doomsday cult, authorities remain uncertain whether the group's leaders were among those who perished in the flames or have simply disappeared.
"We haven't picked up much more on the authors of these acts or about their whereabouts," Internal Security Organisation chief Brigadier Ivan Koreta told AFP about the leaders of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God.
On March 17, 2000, about 300 members of this group, including many women and children, were killed in a blaze in a Kanungu, western Uganda church whose doors and windows had been nailed shut.
Cult members had reportedly been persuaded that they were going into the 'Ark' to join the Virgin Mary in heaven.
In the following weeks a further 395 bodies were found buried in mass graves in the compounds of three buildings owned by the cult across southwest Uganda - and also in a suburb of the capital, Kampala.
But mystery still surrounds the whereabouts of the cult's top leadership.
"Our search most likely seems to point to them having gone up in flames as well... The trail is getting a bit cold now but we keep on trying to learn as much as we can," added Koreta.
Some of the mass graves were in gardens, others under concreted-over floors inside houses. Most of the dead were naked.
Police said at the time that they believed that the three principle cult leaders -- former bar girl Credonia Mwerinde, Joseph Kibwetere and their principle apostle Dominic Kataribaabo -- had died along with their followers.
One of the corpses, at the rear of the Kanungu church, was a large man, a dog-collar fused into his neck by the heat, lying by the back door which had been nailed shut.
He was widely believed to be Kataribaabo.
Within hours of the blaze, reports began to trickle in of Credonia being seen driving away from Kanungu in a pick-up truck.
Police issued arrest warrants for six cult leaders through Interpol, and these remain active.
"There were not really any leads," police spokesman Assuman Mugenyi told AFP.
"We keep on getting information and we would check and then we find nothing. Last year we got information that Katirabaabo was in Nairobi. We sent our people and couldn't get him.
"Then they said Kibwetere had been seen in Kisumu in Kenya. We despatched our police but we were chasing air," Mygenyi added.
The proximity of Kanungu to the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo has fuelled continuing rumours of the cult leaders' successful flight.
The killings shocked and baffled the world. One of the hardest things to understand was how the perpetrators hid their acts from neighbours.
Several of the houses where the bodies were found were built right in the middle of villages, and in the case of Father Kataribaabo, who had 155 bodies buried in his garden and house, was positioned on a ledge overlooking a local school.
The Kampala cult house, which has since been refurbished and rented, was overlooked by other homes.
"Please, this is a private property now. Every day we receive a lot of people saying they just want to peep inside and go away. We are tired of this," the owner told the State Owned New Vision newspaper.
Police still do not know exactly how the killings took place, although they are clearer about the methods used.
"We know that in the church the people died from an explosion caused by lit petrol, not by bombs as earlier alleged. These people had put so many lit containers of petrol around the church," Mugenyi told AFP.
Pathology reports revealed that those who were found buried in the cult buildings had first been poisoned by eating contaminated food.
"Those who took time to die were strangled, but they had already been weakened by the poison in the food," Mugenyi said.
Police have also now established that those found in mass graves were killed four to six weeks before the Kanungu blaze, ending speculation that they were murdered at the turn of the millennium when a prophecy that the world would end failed to come true.
One year on little has been discovered about the motives behind the killings.
Theories range from greed: cult members sold off their belongings at give-away prices before they died; to simple post-millennial madness.
Investigations have been hampered by the government's apparent disinterest.
The severely under-funded police admitted at the time that they lacked the means to handle the inquiry, while a government commission into the massacres never got off the ground for want of finance.

"A year after cult mass murder, some see the ghosts of the victims"

by Henry Wasswa (AP, March 16, 2001)

KANUNGU -- The rusting tire rim that served as a bell to summon the faithful swings from the branch of an avocado tree. A tangle of young saplings pushes up from the mass grave. And the cult leaders presumed to be behind the fire that killed 330 of their followers are still at large one year later. A ghostly silence hangs over the burned-out hall and the tidy, solid houses where the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God prayed and sang. They were awaiting the day when God, angered by the world's sins, would send flames to destroy it and take the virtuous to heaven. But the cult's leaders hastened judgment day and on March 17, according to police, herded 330 people, mostly women and children, into the makeshift mud-and-wattle temple, sprinkled combustible material, nailed the doors and windows shut and torched it. In the following weeks, police followed a grisly trail to several houses owned or rented by presumed cult leaders, and found 448 more bodies stacked like firewood under concrete floors. Hundreds of bodies ended up being bulldozed into a mass grave at the site, a converted farm. Today, people in the hilly corner of southwestern Uganda say the place is haunted by the ghosts of their friends and relatives. "As dusk approaches, we see figures of people moving up and down as they used to do before they were killed in the fire. They put on the same red and blue uniforms," said 18-year-old Deus Tweyongere, whose aunt and four cousins perished in the inferno. Police still guard the site, and officially the investigation continues. But authorities seem to have little prospect of tracking down the alleged cult leaders, Joseph Kibwetere, defrocked Catholic priest Dominic Kataribaabo and a woman named Cledonia Mwerinde, who passed herself off as a nun. Uganda is a poor country. Its police have no access to computer databases that might link them to neighboring countries where at least one suspect has been seen. They even lack gasoline for their few vehicles. "The investigations are not easy, and we were not successful," said national police spokesman Asuman Mugenyi. "We only got air." He said Kataribaabo was seen last year in Rwanda, at the camp of a different cult, and then in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Mwerinde, who once ran a bar, was seen in a village in southwestern Uganda. No one has seen Kibwetere, and many believe he could have perished in the fire. Cult members were pushed to work 12-hour days in the fields and live frugally. They sold their belongings, and once inside the cult compound, could not leave again. "Even during the day, I fear the place," said Peter Mogadi, a farmer. "We hear the ghosts wailing at night, and we see them moving. I know of a whole family of parents, children and grandchildren who had converted to the faith and died on March 17." The compound's stone houses are still strewn with torn clothing, half-used tubes of toothpaste, jars of face cream and bits of candles. No one has decided what to do with the compound. Charles Rwomushana, a former regional legislator, says it should be a place people can visit and remember the dead. "This was an episode of its own in the century, an event of its own," he said.

Le 17 mars 2000 brûlait l’église du Mouvement pour la restauration des dix commandements de Dieu, en Ouganda. Des centaines de cadavres étaient découverts dans les jours suivants. Que sait-on aujourd’hui sur ce drame qui rappelle celui du Temple solaire? 

   Devant le poste de police de la petite ville de Rukungiri, l’officier qui prend le frais sur un banc n’en revient pas en écoutant l’histoire du Temple solaire. «Vous avez aussi eu une affaire de ce genre? En Suisse? Et pas des gens pauvres?» Il hèle d’autres policiers: «Venez écouter ça! Ils ont eu la même chose en Europe!»

   Rukungiri est à deux heures de voiture de Kanungu: une route non goudronnée traverse une belle contrée montagneuse et verdoyante, dénommée parfois «la Suisse de l’Afrique». Les lignes téléphoniques n’atteignent pas cette région isolée, proche de la frontière congolaise. Kanungu est une modeste bourgade dominée par l’imposante église catholique. Il y a un an, comme Cheiry et Salvan en 1994, Kanungu a vu déferler les médias du monde entier.

LA NUIT EN PRIÈRE

   Le 17 mars 2000, quelques centaines de membres du Mouvement pour la restauration des dix commandements de Dieu passent la nuit en prière dans leur nouvelle église, à l’écart du village. Peu avant 10 h du matin, ils quittent le bâtiment pour se diriger vers l’ancienne église, transformée en réfectoire. Vers 10 h 30, les voisins entendent une explosion: le réfectoire se transforme en brasier. Personne n’en réchappe.

   Tout le monde croit à un suicide collectif – jusqu’à la découverte de six corps aux crânes fracassés, jetés dans des latrines fraîchement cimentées... Au cours des semaines suivantes, 444 autres cadavres – hommes, femmes, enfants – sont exhumés de fosses communes dans quatre propriétés qui ont appartenu au mouvement. Derrière ce massacre, un groupe dont les fondateurs avaient commencé comme de pieux catholiques: l’un d’entre eux, le P. Dominic Kataribabo, ancien supérieur d’un petit séminaire, avait même été considéré comme un candidat possible à l’épiscopat. Mais, depuis plus de dix ans, le groupe n’obéissait plus aux évêques. Plusieurs appels à revenir au bercail s’étaient heurtés à des refus.

   L’histoire avait commencé dans un milieu féru d’apparitions mariales. La foi est vive en Ouganda, les églises pleines le dimanche. Dans les années huitante, le pays émerge d’une longue période de tourmentes, mais subit de plein fouet les ravages du sida. Les messages apocalyptiques trouvent des oreilles attentives, une voyante rwandaise attire des foules. Des visionnaires venus de l’étranger ont aussi leur public, par exemple l’Australien d’origine allemande William Kamm, alias «le Petit Caillou» et présenté comme le futur pape Pierre II: plusieurs témoins se souviennent de l’avoir vu lors de sa visite en Ouganda en 1989.

LE FUTUR PAPE PIERRE II

   Les acteurs du drame se rencontrent vers la fin des années huitante. Deux personnages jouent un rôle clé: Joseph Kibwetere, un laïc au passé très engagé religieusement et politiquement, mais impérieux et souffrant de problèmes psychiatriques; et Credonia Mwerinde, originaire de Kanungu, issue d’une famille dans laquelle elle n’est pas la seule visionnaire. En juin 1989, elle reçoit un message qui marque le début des révélations du mouvement: la négligence à l’égard des Dix Commandements mène le monde à la destruction, seule la repentance permettra d’échapper au châtiment, et même de guérir du sida. Le thème n’est pas original: d’autres groupes ougandais tiennent le même discours.

SA FEMME LE QUITTE

   Mais ces visionnaires-là ne se bornent pas à prêcher la repentance: douze apôtres sont choisis, six hommes et six femmes – pour honorer la Vierge, accompagnatrice du Christ dans Son Second Avènement. Prières et révélations se succèdent, et très vite aussi les premières tensions. Des fidèles se rebellent face à l’autoritarisme de Kibwetere et Mwerinde; poussée à bout, la femme de Kibwetere le quitte. Des proches s’inquiètent des rigueurs de la vie de la communauté. Les dirigeants imposent une règle de silence, pour éviter le péché: c’est aussi un moyen de prévenir toute contestation. A côté de ceux qui vivent dans des centres, des groupes de sympathisants se forment à travers le pays.

La vie de la communauté est réglée à l’image d’un monastère. L’orientation théologique relève d’un «traditionalisme sélectif»: langue vernaculaire et tam-tams dans la liturgie ne font pas problème – mais la communion dans la main ou l’autel face au peuple sont rejetés par des fidèles que déçoit le clergé moderne.

   Il semble que les dirigeants annoncent à plusieurs reprises des catastrophes qui ne se produisent pas. En revanche, contrairement aux rumeurs, ils ne prédisent pas la fin du monde pour le 31 décembre 1999. Pour eux, le grand tournant doit se produire à la fin de l’an 2000.

Une terre nouvelle, sans peines et sans souffrances, attend les élus que leur fidélité préservera des épreuves apocalyptiques. «Ils nous disaient qu’il ne faudrait plus bêcher la terre», raconte une femme qui appartenait encore au groupe au début de l’an 2000. Le ciel sur la terre: quand une harassante journée de travail rapporte un salaire de misère, cette promesse sonne autrement que dans une prospère ville occidentale…

ILS PAIENT LEURS DETTES

   Durant les semaines qui précèdent le drame, des émissaires sont envoyés à travers le pays pour encourager tous les sympathisants à se rassembler à Kanungu: la Vierge pardonne, c’est l’offre de la dernière chance – apparemment pour être emmenés au ciel dans une nuée lumineuse. Les propriétés du mouvement sont bradées, les dettes réglées: quelques jours avant l’incendie, l’impôt local est payé pour tous les fidèles qui résident à Kanungu. Des faits qui ne cadrent guère avec l’hypothèse de dirigeants qui éliminent leurs troupes avant de s’enfuir avec la caisse…

   Le point d'interrogation quant au destin des figures de proue du groupe n'est pas levé pour autant: les cadavres calcinés n'ont pu être identifiés. Il n’y a en Ouganda qu'un médecin légiste; la plupart des habitants n'ont pas de dossiers dentaires qui permettraient de déterminer l'identité de cadavres non reconnaissables. Les corps retrouvés dans les fosses étaient dévêtus, ce qui a privé les enquêteurs d'indices même ténus.

   L'affaire avait été méthodiquement planifiée. Les enquêteurs soupçonnent les six cadavres retrouvés dans les latrines de Kanungu d'être ceux des hommes de main qui auraient éliminé les personnes empilées dans les fosses communes. Ils auraient ensuite eux-mêmes été tués avant l'incendie, peut-être empoisonnés, puis achevés. Difficile quand même de comprendre la raison des fosses communes: la thèse de l'élimination de contestataires avec leurs enfants n'est pas exclue, mais le nombre de victimes paraît très élevé – et pas un seul fuyard!

PAS UN SEUL FUYARD

   Credonia Mwerinde était encore à Kanungu quelques heures avant le drame. Elle y a probablement péri et savait ce qui allait se passer, comme le P. Kataribabo, acheteur des substances destinées à provoquer l'incendie. Pour leur part, les fidèles brûlés vifs s'attendaient vraisemblablement à être miraculeusement enlevés au ciel.

   Mais personne n’a réussi à trouver jusqu'à maintenant une explication convaincante des raisons qui ont pu amener les chefs du groupe à prendre une décision aussi radicale.

JFM * Chargé de cours en science des religions à l’Université de Fribourg

"Uganda Cult Mass Murder Anniversary"

by Henry Wasswa (Associated Press, March 16, 2001)

KANUNGU - The rusting tire rim that served as a bell to summon the faithful swings from the branch of an avocado tree. A tangle of young saplings pushes up from the mass grave.
And the cult leaders presumed to be behind the fire that killed 330 of their followers are still at large one year later.
A ghostly silence hangs over the burned-out hall and the tidy, solid houses where the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God prayed and sang.
They were awaiting the day when God, angered by the world's sins, would send flames to destroy it and take the virtuous to heaven.
But the cult's leaders hastened judgment day and on March 17, according to police, herded 330 people, mostly women and children, into the makeshift mud-and-wattle temple, sprinkled combustible material, nailed the doors and windows shut and torched it.
In the following weeks, police followed a grisly trail to several houses owned or rented by presumed cult leaders, and found 448 more bodies stacked like firewood under concrete floors.
Hundreds of bodies ended up being bulldozed into a mass grave at the site, a converted farm.
Today, people in the hilly corner of southwestern Uganda say the place is haunted by the ghosts of their friends and relatives.
``As dusk approaches, we see figures of people moving up and down as they used to do before they were killed in the fire. They put on the same red and blue uniforms,'' said 18-year-old Deus Tweyongere, whose aunt and four cousins perished in the inferno.
Police still guard the site, and officially the investigation continues. But authorities seem to have little prospect of tracking down the alleged cult leaders, Joseph Kibwetere, defrocked Catholic priest Dominic Kataribaabo and a woman named Cledonia Mwerinde, who passed herself off as a nun.
Uganda is a poor country. Its police have no access to computer databases that might link them to neighboring countries where at least one suspect has been seen. They even lack gasoline for their few vehicles.
``The investigations are not easy, and we were not successful,'' said national police spokesman Asuman Mugenyi. ``We only got air.''
He said Kataribaabo was seen last year in Rwanda, at the camp of a different cult, and then in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi. Mwerinde, who once ran a bar, was seen in a village in southwestern Uganda. No one has seen Kibwetere, and many believe he could have perished in the fire.
Cult members were pushed to work 12-hour days in the fields and live frugally. They sold their belongings, and once inside the cult compound, could not leave again.
``Even during the day, I fear the place,'' said Peter Mogadi, a farmer. ``We hear the ghosts wailing at night, and we see them moving. I know of a whole family of parents, children and grandchildren who had converted to the faith and died on March 17.''
The compound's stone houses are still strewn with torn clothing, half-used tubes of toothpaste, jars of face cream and bits of candles.
No one has decided what to do with the compound. Charles Rwomushana, a former regional legislator, says it should be a place people can visit and remember the dead.
``This was an episode of its own in the century, an event of its own,'' he said.