"Cult Dead Were Tutsi - Nadduli"

by Mulindwa Rogers ("The Monitor", June 28, 2000)

Kampala - Luwero district LCV Chairman, Haji Abdul Nadduli has said the hundreds of bodies exhumed from Kanungu cult mass graves were of Rwandese.
The out-spoken chairman was addressing a public rally on the June 29 referendum at Katale zone in Wobulenzi town council June 27.
The rally was organised by the area MP and minister of education and sports Prof. Edward Khidu Makubuya. Nadduli is the Movement Referendum Committee chairman.
He said the leader of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, Joseph Kibwetere was among the Rwandese interahamwe (genociders) sent to Uganda to identify and kill Rwandese Tutsi "quickly and in silence".
"The (Hutu) interahamwe did not want them to go and join their fellows in Rwanda," he said.
Over 400 people were March 17 burnt to death in the cult's church in Kanungu, Rukungiri, while several hundred bodies were discovered in secret mass graves at cult compounds.
Nadduli said Kibwetere's religion was founded as an umbrella under which all the Rwandese were collected and massacred, and that there could have been some Banyankole killed because it was hard to differentiate them and the Rwandese.
"If there were any Baganda, then the fraction was one out of the thousands," he said.
The LCV chairman challenged the locals to put up their hands if they lost any of their relatives in Kanungu or other identified mass graves.
"The dead were over 1,000, how many of these came from Wobulenzi?" he asked and the crowd shouted "none".
He said he had travelled all over Kampala city but had not met any person who claims to have lost a relative in the brutal Kanungu incident.
Nadduli, who said the statements were his personal and not the government's view, reminded his audience of the 1994 incident where hundreds of dead bodies of people killed by the Hutu floated along Lake Victoria. "They were also killed by the interahamwe," he said.
The function started with a march through Wobulenzi town streets accompanied by the UPDF brass band from Bombo barracks. The rally was disrupted by a heavy down pour but people braved it to listen to all the speakers.

"Police Exhumes All Cult Bodies"

("New Vision", June 16, 2000)

Kampala - Ugandan police have exhumed all the bodies of those murdered by leaders of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God cult, police spokesman Asuman Mugenyi said Tuesday.
"I think we have now exhausted all those places where these people were buried," Mugenyi told AFP.
On March 17, between 330 and 500 people burnt to death in a fire at their Kanungu cult headquarters in western Uganda.
In the following weeks, police unearthed mass graves containing naked bodies of over 450 mainly women and children at four sites in western Uganda and in the capital Kampala.
Several of the bodies, apparently strangled, had twists of banana fibre around their necks.
Police halted the search for further bodies in April after admitting that they did not have the capacity, equipment or expertise to deal with the scale of the killings.
It was believed, however, that more bodies were buried in other sites accross western Uganda, including a pit latrine inside the cult headquarters at Kanungu, where six mutilated bodies were discovered days after the fire.
But Mugenyi told AFP on Tuesday that further investigations had revealed that there were no more bodies in Kanungu.
"I have just talked to the district police commander in that area. There are no more bodies in Kanungu as we had earlier suspected. It is true the place is still smelling, but there aren't any more bodies,"Mugenyi said.

"Police Hold Kibwetere Son-In-Law's Passport"

("New Vision," (Kampala) June 5, 2000)

Kampala - Didas Kanyesigye, the LC5 secretary for defence Kabale district, Friday said they are holding Dr Khan Ali's passport, graduated tax tickets and other documents pending an investigation into his role in the Kibwetere doom's day cult of the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, reports Deus Ariyo.
The Kanungu-based cult was responsible for the death of over 1,000. Dr Khan, a Pakistani, is a son-in-law to Joseph Kibwetere, the cult leader.
Kanyesigye said Khan was one of the followers of the cult and that he used to move from Kabale to join the rest of the believers at Kanungu. He said Khan disappeared after the Kanungu inferno of March 17 in which an estimated 500 followers of the cult perished. He re-appeared on May 20.
When he reappeared in Kabale, he was taken to Police to make a statement and his documents were impounded. He denied any connection with his father-in-law's activities.
Kanyesigye said Khan is not allowed to leave Kabale. Police sources said Khan was to be interrogated about his father-in-law's whereabouts.
However, the South-western Regional Police Commander, Mr. Stephen Okwalinga, said he had not yet got information on Khan.
Meanwhile, Abdoni Bishoborohire, a former member of the Kanungu doomsday cult, has denied that he got the Virgin Mary vision and that he would continue with the faith, reports Raynel Kanyambu.
Police said Thursday that Bishoborohire, who is alleged to have gathered about 70 people at his residence for indoctrination, said the people were gathered there to discuss developmental projects.
"Bishoborohire has denied recruiting people to join the Kibwetere sect, saying that he only saw Kataribaabo in a vision," Police said.
Bishoborohire, a resident of Karagara, Bunyaruguru in Bushenyi district, and a former cult member reportedly claimed to have had the vision of the Virgin Mary and Dominic Kataribaabo.
Since the Kanungu inferno, the Government has kept an eye on religious sects.
Last Wednesday, the Police collected statements from the villagers and family members of Bishoborohire.

"Thousands In Namugongo Pilgrimage"

by E. Kameo, J. Maseruka A. Musamali and J. Nakinga ("New Vision" (Kampala), June 4, 2000)

Kampala - The Catholic Church has once again condemned the doomsday cult leaders who abused the freedom of worship, leading their followers to their deaths in thousands at Kanungu in March this year and in other places where mass graves were later discovered.
The main celebrant of the mass, the Rt. Bishop Adrian Kiwanuka Ddungu of Masaka described celebrations of the Jubilee 2000 as, "special because we are being called to a deeper spiritual renewal," he said.
He added that Namugongo Martyrs shrine is therefore the best place where one can obtain this inspiration for a deeper spiritual renewal. "Renewal is a painful and extremely difficult process, and to some, it means changing form one person to another.
According to Bishop Ddungu, it is a prodigy that most of the martyrs were still young people and some were below the age of 20 and it is also a prodigy that these heroes had only a short period of instruction, all lay people.
The Church of Uganda on its part called for peace during the forthcoming referendum on political systems.
Archbishop Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyoyo said that although the referendum was near, we should continue to keep peace.
"Although we have different religions and regions, we are Ugandans. And as Ugandans, we should be one. Despite that this month we are going for the referendum we should be one," said the archbishop.
He thanked the army, the prison and police services who have tried to maintain the peace now in the country.

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