The Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God

--(Various Sources)--
This Doomsday Cult was based in Uganda and founded in the late 80s by excommunicated Roman Catholic priests, Joseph Kibweteere, Joseph Kasapurari, John Kamagara and Dominic Kataribabo; two excommunicated Roman Catholic nuns; and Credonia Mwerinde, an ex-prostitute.

On March 15 2000, (two days before the church fire) a "farewell" letter was issued by Kibeteere to government officials. That letter spoke of the imminent end of the current generation and the world. Similar sentiments were expressed in a previous communication, which said "God sent us as a movement of truth and justice to notify the people to prepare for the closing of this generation, which is at hand." One official reflecting upon Kibwetere's last letter recalled, "The person who brought the letter bid farewell to the...staff. It was pre-meditated suicide."

At their height, the cult may have included as many as 5,000 members. The 68-year-old self-styled "bishop" was once a prominent Roman Catholic and active in Ugandan politics. In 1998 Kibwetere was hospitalized for treatment of a mental illness. "He had an affective disorder. A cyclical thing. Up and down. Like manic depress[ion]," advised Dr. Fred Kigozi, executive director of Kampala's Butabika mental hospital.



Kibwetere claimed to have visions and hear conversations between Jesus and the Virgin Mary. He said the Virgin Mary complained about the world's departure from the Ten Commandments. And subsequently, that he was commanded to announce a coming Apocalypse in the year 2000.

Kibwetere authored a handbook, which foretold a litany of coming calamities that would destroy most of the world's population. He said only those who obeyed the commandments and followed him might be spared within his church, which he called the "ark."

Joseph Kibwetere merged his leadership with a former prostitute named Credonia Mwerinde often called the "programmer." Some say Mwerinde, who claimed to have met the Virgin Mary, ultimately eclipsed the cult's founder in both real importance and power. Fr. Paul Ikazire, a priest and former cult member said she dominated the group and that "Kibwetere was just a figurehead." He characterized Mwerinde as "a trickster, obsessed with the desire to grab other people's property." The Virgin Mary as channeled through Mwerinde proscribed all the rules of the group.

Credonia Mwerinde preached that personal possessions were evil. She encouraged cult members to sell everything and surrender all their assets to her. Eventually Mwerinde became rich and accumulated farms, houses and cars. Paul Ikazire recalled, "She would come in and say things like: 'The Virgin Mary wants you to bring more money."'

Kibwetere and Mwerinde kept their followers isolated. Any contact with outsiders ("sinners") was strictly monitored and often forbidden. Cult members were predominately poor and former Catholics. They were encouraged to be celibate, sworn to a vow of silence and unable to speak unless in prayer. They often relied upon sign language.



The movement's members rose at dawn, prayed until noon and worked long hours in the fields before going to bed usually at 10 PM. Though newcomers were fed well the regular members largely subsisted on beans. They were hungry, tired, estranged from family and largely cut off from the outside world.

Doomsday predictions were made by the cult's leaders, but pushed forward again and again. Kibwetere's manifesto handbook had been mailed out by the thousands, which was titled "A Timely Message From Heaven: The End of the Present Time." The date for this final event was set for December 31, 2000. When that day passed as another unfulfilled prophecy it is believed that some disgruntled members wanted to leave and have their property returned.



OVERALL GLIMPSE:

On the 17th of March 2000, 530 bodies, of which at least 78 were children, were found to have burned alive in a church in a remote part of Uganda; all part of a Christian apolcalyptic group. 330 skulls were found, the rest had turned to ash. Over 1,000 bodies were found elsewhere in Uganda during the following days, many of which were found to have been strangled. The doors and locks were fastened from the inside, suggesting this was the final intention of the group's leader, not necessarily an outsider murdering them.

On March 24, two mass graves containing 153 bodies were found at a cult compound in Kalingo, 45 km to the west of Kanungu. Some had been dead for more than four months.

Days later, 155 bodies were discovered under a newly-cemented floor in the house of cult leader 'Father' Dominic Kataribabo in Rugazi, 80 km north of Kanungu.

Most of the victims were women and children, many with stab wounds or ropes around their necks. Others were poisoned.



There are many reasons that lead authorities to believe it was a MASS SUICIDE:

- There is one initial report, never unconfirmed, that the members had applied gasoline and paraffin to their skin before the explosion and fire. However, it is difficult to see how the observer could have witnessed these preparations if the windows and doors of the church were nailed shut. If confirmed, this would be one indicator that the deaths might have been the result of a mass suicide, similar to that of Heaven's Gate.
- The police investigation cast doubt on this sole witness; they found no signs of paraffin having been used at the church. Most of the world media initially emphasized the suicide theory. So did representatives of the anti-cult movement who are keen to promote their belief that mass suicide is a logical outcome of cult activity. They accuse cults of brainwashing their membership and reducing their will to act independently.
- Although their fundamental beliefs have been widely discounted by mental health professionals, the ACM has been quite successful in propagating their beliefs among the press and the rest of the public.

However, there are also many indications that the tragedy was actually MASS MURDER:

- Several news sources reported that the doors of the church were nailed shut from the inside. That might indicate that the leadership wanted to confine the full membership within the church in order to murder the entire group.
- The discovery of additional bodies which had been murdered and buried in latrines near the church gives weight to the mass murder theory.
- The discoveries of many hundreds of murder victims at other locations also point towards mass murder.
- Leader Kibwetere appears to have planned the tragedy in advance. He allegedly sent a letter to his wife before the tragedy, encouraging her to continue the religion "because the members of the cult were going to perish the next day.''
- The group's membership are almost entirely ex-Roman Catholic -- a faith that strongly forbids suicide. Traditional belief also very strongly forbids suicide. Finally, local belief is that if a person dies in a fire, that not only their body is killed but their soul is as well. This is the reason why evil sorcerers were once burned alive: so that they would be completely annihilated. It is very unlikely that if a person in this area wanted to commit suicide that they would choose death by fire."



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