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Cult leaders convicted
by Maurice Okore
New Vision (25.07.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (30.07.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - Six leaders of the Jjajja Ndawula cult were convicted yesterday of unlawful operation of a religious organization. The magistrate will deliver their sentences today. They were remanded to Luzira Prison.
The convicts admitted to operating the cult.
John Ssemanda, 42, Mary Nakalema, 26, Godfrey Kizito, 26, Geoffrey Wasajja, 25, Vincent Musoke and Agnes Namazzi admitted operating an unregistered organization called "Katula Kebisse Buka Cultural Group Limited."
The convicts were arrested from their shrine in Wakiso district.
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A report on the events of Kanungu
By Jean-Fran?ois Mayer
Religioscope (05.06.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (06.06.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - In March 2000, the violent death of several hundreds of members of a dissident apocalyptic group of the Catholic church in Uganda, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments, reached the headlines of the international press. The Ugandan Human Rights Commission has just published a report to this subject.
The events of March 2000 occurred in an isolated region in the south of Uganda. This explains why, in comparison with violent events connected with religious groups in the West, this matter has not received more media attention than a few attempts to research the issue, including a report from a group of researchers at the University Makarere in Kampala, and articles and exposs from the appropriate Religioscope editor, who went with this aim to Uganda twice--once in 2000 and once in 2001.
Therefore, it is with much more interest that one reads this report, published in May 2002 by the Uganda Human Rights Commission, which is a semi-official group. Because of the nature of this organizations work, the report is not a matter of producing a complete investigation of the affair: attention remains on questions relating to human rights (and the report concludes that the practices of the Movement of the Restoration of the Ten Commandments did violate human rights on several grounds). The report offers various recommendations in this respect. Finally, certain conclusions remain subject to discussion: there remains much to do to have an exact and complete picture of this tragedy and its background.
We limit ourselves to summarizing in a few lines certain conclusions of the report (interested readers can go to the website for more details).
First of all, the Commission excludes in its report the explanation of the collective suicide that was propagated in the first few days following the drama, a point with which all other observers have agreed. It is a matter, rather, of a collective assassination planned by a small group. A goodbye letter from a member, whose text is quoted completely in the report, gives his family to understand that the followers of the group would take refuge in the Arch (the general headquarters of the Movement in Kanungu), while humanity entered into a time of great tribulation. The present era would end, the letter claimed, before the beginning of the year 2001.
The report confirms that, although Joseph Kibwetere was formally the head of the group, the true leader was in fact Credonia Mwerinde. The possibility has not been excluded that Joseph Kibwetere was already dead several months before the events (perhaps victim to AIDS, which is very prevalent in Uganda). This sheds light on interesting facets of other cases in which the death of one of the leaders in a couple at the head of a movement seems to have encouraged acceleration toward a radical exit.
The report confirms that the property of the group was sold at liquidated prices in the days preceding the event. As the aforementioned letter stated, this shows that the followers expected important and imminent events to occur (even if, aside from a few, they did not truly know the nature of such events)
The majority of victims whose bodies are found in the communal burial grounds in four locations in the country--close to hundreds of members perished in the fire of March 17, 2000--were women and children. The report questions this overrepresentation of women: it appears, nevertheless, to conform to a tendency observed in a number of religious groups throughout the world.
The report estimates--in accordance with the observations of the editor of Religioscope--that Credonia Mwerinde and most of the other leaders most likely perished in the fire of Kanungu on March 17. On the other hand, the report concludes that Father Dominic Kataribabo (an experienced priest, who stayed two years in the United States during the 1980s and earned a university diploma) did not die in the Kanungu fire, be he dead elsewhere or alive somewhere else. This is perhaps one of the more original conclusions of the report, and that raises of course an important question. It shows at the same time the uncertainties that persist, notably because of the impossibility of identifying the corpses of the victims (burned in teh church or decomposed in the fosses).
Site of the Uganda Human Rights Commission: http://www.uhrc.org
Text of the report, The Kanungu Massacre of May 2002) (main text of the report, but without the appendices):
http://www.uhrc.org/publications/[1022501764]Kanungu%20report-website.htm
Ugandan press articles announcing the publication of the report:
http://www.cesnur.org/2002/uganda_001.htm
File of articles from the media about the Kanungu affair, since March 2000, on the CESNUR website: http://www.cesnur.org/2001/uganda_updates.htm
An article in English by Jean-Fran?ois Mayer, "Field Notes: The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God", is available in Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions, 5/1, octobre 2001, pp. 203-210. This article is not available on the Internet at this time.
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Kanungu cult report released
By John Eremu
New Vision (28.05.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (29.05.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - The infamous cult in which over 500 followers died in a fire in Kanungu in March 2000 was led by Credonia Mwerinde and not Joseph Kibwetere as most people thought, a report by the Uganda Human Rights Commission has said.
The report launched yesterday by the commissions chairperson, Margaret Ssekajja, at Hotel Africana, said children kidnapped from Kampala were found in camps of the outlawed cult, the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God.
Commissioner Constantine Karusoke, who led investigations into the cults activities said that Kibwetere was recruited into the cult by Mwerinde and used as a flag because of his wealth and high profile in society.
The head of the cult was not Kibwetere as most of us were made to believe, Karusoke said. It was a woman called Credonia Mwerinde who led the cult. She was the one who recruited Kibwetere and other cult leaders and even had control over them, he said.
Karusoke said some Government officials were negligent about monitoring the cults activities.
Some far-sighted leaders, like former Rukungiri Resident District Commissioner (RDC), Yorokamu Kamacerere, had advised against the registration of the cult and even warned his successor in his handover report, but his successor never heeded the advice, Karusoke said.
The 84-page report recommends that the then-RDC, Kitaka Gawera, be investigated to establish the circumstances that led to his fraternising with the cult leaders. It also recommends that security organs be adequately facilitated to prevent such occurrences in future.
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Police arrest suspected cult leader
By Emmanuel Mulondo
New Vision (27.05.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (28.05.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - The police in Kamwenge have arrested a suspected cult leader who has allegedly been confining his followers and overworking them.
Police sources said Aloysius Ndyabawe was arrested from Nyarurambi village, Kabambiro parish where he had set up camp.
The officer-in-charge of the criminal investigations department, Eric Otim, said investigations were going on.
The Police said Ndyabawe had been convincing parents to give him guardianship over their children under the pretext of offering them free studies for over a year. He said that all they had to pay was a registration fee of sh20,000.
The parents gave him their children, who he confined at his camp and overworked.
Ndyabawes sister, whose name is not established, was reportedly coaching the children about the cults Divine Principle.
Some children are said to have been promised to be taken out of the country for further instruction on the religion.
The beans were spilled after feeding became a problem, and some of the followers escaped from the camp to report the matter.
Security personnel have become vigilant about dealing with questionable religious groups.
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History judges Kanungu massacre
By David Mukholi
New Vision (24.05.2002)/HRWF International Secretariat (28.05.2002) - Website http://www.hrwf.net - E-mail info@hrwf.net - WHEN over 500 people were burnt to death two years ago, it was at first thought to be mass suicide, but it turned out to be a well-planned murder. Following the incident, Uganda Human Rights Commission (UHRC) set up a team to investigate the causes and the human right implications of the Kanungu tragedy. Its report, titled The Kanungu Massacre: The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God Indicted, reveals how the cult leaders violated the human rights of the followers.
The report says all human rights, especially the freedom to speak; freedom from torture, cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; the right to property; right to health; right to marriage and children, were violated.
UHRC is mandated to publish periodic reports of its findings on the state of human rights and freedoms in the country. Apart from Police inquiry, this is the first investigation by a statutory institution. Government set up a Commission of Inquiry which is yet to begin working. It is also the first public document on the Kanungu cult.
The Movement for the Restoration of Ten Commandment of God, led by psychopaths pretending to deliver their followers to heaven, could have instead sent them to hell. Even before their death, the report indicates that the followers lived in constant torment.
The report documents 20 ways the cult recruited and retained followers. Laced with threats of the apocalypse, the cult leaders manipulated the predominantly peasant followers into submission. No questions but obedience and patience in anticipation of the end of the world were expected of them.
Cults thrive on spiritual hunger, offering hope to the desperate, but in the end take lives. From the report, the Movement for the Restoration of Ten Commandments had all the characteristics of a cult. It was manipulative, excluded followers from their communities and managed strict secrecy about its activities. Like any cult, it operated as a transit point from the world to heaven.
The report catalogues several cases of human rights abuse: Children were separated from parents and communication between them harshly restricted. Children who cried in the night were taken out and left in the cold until they "stopped crying".
Contrary to the inherent rights, cult leaders discouraged the followers from possessing property. Several of the followers sold their belongings, including land and found sanctuary in the cult's compound.
Scanty accommodation and poor sanitation did not bother them since, in their anticipation of meeting their creator; temporary discomfort on earth was merely a brief moment.
The report cites the ban on sex among married couples as well as on, speech and contact with communities neighbouring the cult camps as cases of human rights abuse. The whole conception and structure of the cult was erected on principles that denied members their rights as Ugandan citizens and human beings.
And discrimination was common; while the followers were denied basic rights, the cult leaders enjoyed theirs in full.
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Cult leader flees
New Vision (12.03. 2002) - HRWF International Secretariat (14.03.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - Self-styled bishop, Viginari Odonga of a suspected cult in Akworo sub-county, Nebbi district has fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo, a security source has revealed.
Ayiga Ondoga reports that Odonga disappeared when security team led by the Resident District Commissioner, Peter Odok W'Ocheng, raided the camp and arrested 16 members. It is believed that 10 people have died in the camp.
While addressing the gathering at the Women's Day celebrations at Boma Grounds in Nebbi town, W'ocheng said people should be on the look out for suspicious organisations and report them to avoid a repeat of the Kanungu catastrophe.
"I condemn the barbaric act of taking peoples lives forcefully. A church that deters people from getting medical treatment is an enemy of society," Betty Udongo, a Nebbi Member of Parliament said.
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Anti-cult group gets death threat
P.M. News (12.03. 2002) - - HRWF International Secretariat (14.03.2002) C Website http://www.hrwf.net C Email info@hrwf.net - Members of the Anti-Cult Alliance Movement of the Olabisi Onabanjo University of the Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, have raised an alarm over the alleged threat to their lives, peace and stability of their campus by cultists.
According to a statement signed by the Secretary-General of the organisation, "it has become a common phenomenon in the institution for cultists to enjoy the undue advantage of tormenting, extorting and killing innocent students without remorse or fear due to the connivance of the school authorities".
The chairman of ACAM, Yinka Abayomi, Campus Square authoritatively gathered, was attacked in his room around 10.30 p.m. on February 13, 2002, a day after another students' union leader, Tunde Salau, was murdered at Lagos State University, Ojo. The student lamented that it may become another horrific episode like the way George Iwilade (Africa) of Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife and many others were murdered in 1999 by cultists. Akin Okunowo, another vibrant students' union activist has also received a death threat.
Campus Square also learnt that when Yinka Abayomi was attacked by members of the Supreme Eiye Confraternity, the sum of N32,000 which was supposed to be the school fees of his cousin, was extorted from him.
Accusing fingers have been pointed in the direction of one Taofeek Adesanya, the alleged leader of the gang, who Campus Square gathered, is now in Eleweran Police Command, Abeokuta where the police are questioning him. His old model Volvo with Lagos registration number BZ 817 KJA was said to have been used during their operation.
A student who spoke under anonymity, said that the Muslim Students Association has carried out several protests only for the cultists to return to the campus to terrorise them again.
The father of Taofeek Adesanya who identified himself as an ex-major in the military, Campus Square gathered, has publicly threatened to harm Akin Okunowo and others if his son is not left off the hook.
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