Police Arrest Fugitive Doomsday Cult Leader In Uganda KAMPALA, Uganda (AP)--Police have arrested a fugitive religious cult leader
who had been on the run for 10 months after at least 24 decomposed bodies
were
found in shallow graves in his cult camp, a police spokesman said Wednesday.
Wilson Bushara, 41, fled in September when police raided his compound in
Bokoto, 45 kilometers north of Kampala, and arrested 1,000 members of his
World
Message Last Warning cult.
Police spokesman Asuman Mugenyi said Bushara was arrested on Monday in
Iganga, 130 kilometers east of Kampala.
Mugenyi said Bushara, who was arrested with 29 followers, will be charged
with sexual abuse and managing unlawful assemblies.
Bushara began attracting crowds last year by offering them space in heaven
after death in return for cash payment.
Men were supposed to surrender their wives, and the wives were to declare
themselves unmarried before joining the sect.
Mugenyi said there was no link between the Bushara cult and the Restoration
of the Ten Commandments of God. Police said 778 members of that cult were
killed in circumstances that have not yet been explained. At least 330 of the
dead were burned alive in a fire at the cult compound in Kanungu in
southwestern Uganda on March 17.
"Whereas the movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
was
predicting the world would end in 2000 and recruiting mainly Catholics,
Bushara
was saying people were to go to heaven on 30th June, 1999, and that his was
recruiting Protestants," Mugenyi said.
Police have issued arrest warrants for cult leader Joseph Kibwetere, and
his
two deputies Credonia Mwerinde and Dominic Kataribabo, whose whereabouts are
still unknown. |
