Date: Fri, 24 Mar 2000 15:56:24 +0300 (BEAUT)
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Subject: UGANDA: Focus on cultism and religious freedom  [2000324]
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UGANDA: Focus on cultism and religious freedom

KANUNGU, Uganda, 24 March (IRIN) - The mass suicide on 17 March of more
than 300 cult members in Kanungu, southwestern Uganda, has forced the
Ugandan government to look closely at the issue of religious freedom in
relation to the proliferation of cults and sects. 

The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God was banned
with immediate effect. On 21 March, parliament called for the government
to launch an investigation into religious organisations and other
non-governmental organisations (NGOs) to stop similar tragedies occurring. 

During the debate, some MP's complained that the incident was the result
of too much tolerance and religious freedom. There were also calls for all
religious organisations to be investigated. 

Joseph Kibwetere's Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments
had been registered as an NGO since 1997 and had reportedly submitted an
annual report to the Ministry of Internal Affairs in March, just prior to
the deaths. 

In the report, the organisation said its mission would be coming to an end
in the year 2000, and that next year would be "year number 1, new
generation". 

Local officials said the cult had invited government representatives to
Kanungu for a party on Saturday 18 March. Police believe this may have
been a way of covering for the increased numbers of people at the commune
and ritual preparations. Before their deaths, members paid outstanding
graduated taxes and other debts. 

Members deposited a cult constitution and title deeds to the land at the
local police station the week of the mass suicide. Property, including
cattle and farm produce, was sold off cheaply the week before the suicide,
and a big party held at the commune the evening before. 

Other signals that the authorities failed to pick up was a statement
self-styled prophet Kibwetere sent to a vernacular local paper, reassuring
his followers that Jesus Christ had appeared to him with new prophecies of
Armageddon. The statement was not published. 

Charismatic former prostitute and "priestess" Credonia Mwerinde reportedly
attracted many members with her claims that the Virgin Mary communicated
directly with her. In the early 1990s, she claimed she had a video tape
showing the Virgin Mary talking to her. 

Security personnel have given conflicting accounts about "monitoring" the
movement. Four policemen were among the dead, one of whom was reportedly
planted in the commune as an informer. 

Regional Police Commander Stephen Okwaringa told journalists at the site
that Kibwetere's cult "was smarter than our officers" and converted or
transferred informers to other branches. 

There was an attempt to close down the commune primary school in November
1998 by Rukungiri District Administration, for "engaging in acts that
violated the Constitution of the Republic of Uganda, the Local Government
Act and the Public Health regulations", according to a letter of closure. 

Children were reported to be poorly fed on porridge, sleeping without
blankets, malnourished, and engaged in child labour. 

Talking was forbidden among the rank-and-file and members were expected to
indicate basic needs through sign language. Sex was also forbidden. Men
and women lived in separate quarters. No children were conceived in the
commune - there was a report of one woman beaten until she miscarried -
and children were brought in with new members. 

Police are investigating bodies found in cemented-over latrines, under a
house used by the leaders. The discovery of these bodies - some of which
show signs of violent death - increasingly point to mass murder. 

There are believed to be no survivors from some 600 cult members known to
have gathered at Kanungu commune during the week of the deaths. A
government pathologist has identified 330 skulls, of which 78 are
children, but believes up to 500 may have been incinerated in a fierce
fire most likely sparked by an explosion of petrol and sulphuric acid. 

Lack of specialised equipment and poor government support meant that
police were still struggling to excavate the pit five days after the mass
suicide in the church.  President Yoweri Museveni came under some public
criticism for a belated reaction to the deaths - he expressed "shock" on
Sunday evening but failed to mobilise resources quickly. 

Although the mass suicide attracted considerable international media
coverage, Dr Gordon Melton, director of the Institute for the Study of
American Religion (Santa Barbara, California) warned in an initial report
about interpreting events in a way that serves to identify with the
Western myth of cult suicide. 

He said more research should be done to look at religion-related violence
under new "and often unstable" African governments. The Kanungu deaths
took place in a volatile region where the Uganda, Congo and Rwanda borders
converge and, says Dr Melton, near "the site of the massive genocide to
the south" - a reference to Rwanda's 1994 genocide. 

Uganda has experienced a proliferation of cults and sects post-Idi Amin,
whose regime is credited with some half a million deaths. "The violence in
the immediate vicinity of this occurrence is of a magnitude that most
Westerners have a difficulty comprehending," he stated. 

Uganda has produced some of the most extreme and violent of Christian
cults, including Alice Lakwena's Holy Spirit Movement and its successor,
the Lord's Resistance Army. The Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), notorious
for its abuse and kidnapping of children, is pursuing a guerrilla war in
northern Uganda with the stated intention of running the country on the
basis of the Ten Commandments. 

Alice Lakwena, a former prostitute turned priestess, convinced thousands
of young men that they were immune from bullets if they smeared her magic
potions over their bodies - leading them to wholesale slaughter by
well-armed government troops. 

There have also been recent raids by Ugandan police on sects accused of
abuse and apocalyptic preaching, like the World Message Last Warning
Church in Luweero, and the camp of the "Prophetess" Nabaasa in Ntusi,
Sembabule district. 

The Movement of the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God included
the well-educated, excommunicated priest, Dominic Kataribabo, who had a
doctorate degree in theology. 

According to an analysis by Charles Onyango-Obbo, editor of 'The Monitor',
the "defining event" for the formation of the cult was the split of Ankole
Diocese into three in the late 1960s. The subsequent choice of leadership
in the Catholic church sparked resentment, with accusations that tribal
considerations were taking precedent. 

US and British-educated priests - like Dominic Kataribabo - were
frustrated in their ambitions and were transferred to the less
prestigious, rural posts. 

Among the dispossessed elite was Joseph Kibwetere, described as "a devout
Catholic and wealthy dairy and poultry farmer", who turned to politics in
the shape of the Catholic-based Democratic Party (DP). When Milton Obote's
UPC destroyed the DP, Kibwetere lost his wealth and social standing and
was forced to live a humiliating existence in Kabale. 

Museveni's rise to power allowed this dispossessed elite to realign and
reestablish themselves. They appealed to a predominantly poor, peasant -
and female - following who were disillusioned with the established church
leadership, increasingly accused of corruption, immorality and
opportunism. 

According to The Institute for the Study of American Religion - which
researches international cults and sects - more than 5,000 African
Indigenous Church (AIC) groups have arisen over the last hundred years and
"the largest single block of them are composed of former Roman Catholics". 

The Roman Catholic Church is said to be the largest religious organisation
on the African continent. Internationally, there have been hundreds of
reported apparitions of the Virgin Mary over the last century "within and
on the fringe of the Roman Catholic Church", says the Institute. 

Many of these apparitions in Africa - which also have a strong apocalyptic
element associated with them - never reach the press, but inspire huge
gatherings and pilgrimages. 

The advent of the new millennium had a strong impact on sects and members
of mainstream religions. For example, in Kakamega, western Kenya, hundreds
of women dressed in white on the eve of the millennium and waited
throughout the night in Pentecostal and Quaker churches for Jesus to
"appear" or for the end of the world. 

Local residents in Kanungu, Uganda, said there was a similar phenomenon in
their district even among mainstream churches. 

Since independence, the local "adaption" of imported Christian religions
has not been well-received by the established hierarchy, many of whom are
closely involved with existing political structures. There is an
attraction to charismatic cults for the poor, who live hard lives on the
periphery of society. 

New sects are seen by the mainstream churches as "insubordinate"  and
competing for resources. There was in Uganda, for example, some public
criticism of the Catholic Church when it refused to hold mass for the
people who died in Kanungu - even though suicide had not been proved and
78 innocent children were among the dead. 

Other concerns regarding the proliferation of religious movements in
Uganda focus on the reluctance of Museveni to allow a multi-party
political system. 

Religious movements and cults have to some extent become vehicles for
frustrated ambitions, like those of Joseph Kibwetere. The government will,
however, be under as much pressure to review freedom of worship and more
closely regulate religious sects and non-governmental organisations as to
open up. Many politicians believe it is the relative freedoms of a
democratising country that has precipitated the sudden growth of such
movements. 

[ENDS]

[IRIN-CEA: Tel: +254 2 622147 Fax: +254 2 622129 e-mail: irin-cea@ocha.unon.org ]






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