http://www.smh.com.au/news/9912/29/world/world3.html

Cult lures villagers to millennial light

By BERNARD LAGAN and agencies

Hundreds of villagers in Papua New Guinea's remote central west have left their homes, stopped sending their children to school and congregated around the leader of a cult who has told them the world will plunge into darkness on Saturday and PNG's expatriates will vanish.

Many have also tried to quit their jobs after being promised they would be rewarded in the new year provided they had paid a fee to join the movement, called the Rainbow Church.

The movement, described by PNG police yesterday as resembling a cargo cult, is centred in the village of Kikisram in the North Fly district of PNG's Western province.

The provincial commander of the North Fly police, Chief Inspector Saibu Ako, said hundreds of people had abandoned their homes and travelled to Kikisram in the weeks before Christmas.

Police had been alerted by health authorities, concerned that children had been withdrawn from local schools, he said.

Makeshift homes had been built around the house of the cult leader, who describes himself as the principal of the Rainbow Church in Kikisram, Inspector Ako said.

In return for paying money into the cult, the followers had been told they would be spared from millenium chaos and eventually rewarded . The followers had also been told their money was going to an Australian charity which would look after them.

The owners of a guest house near Kikisram said yesterday that they had had to talk their staff out of resigning to join the cult.

Expatriate Australian Mrs Joy Dutton said her staff had built houses near the cult leader's and wanted to go and live by him.

"I told them to think of their children's future and their own. They have decided to stay in their jobs."

Mrs Dutton said there had been rumours that the cult would crucify a person on New Year's Eve.

Inspector Ako said police had gone to Kikisram just before Christmas and asked people to dismantle the houses and return to their own villages.

He said the cult leader, whom he declined to name, was helping police with their inquiries about the destination of money collected from his followers.

"We are still investigating where he put the money. At this point, we have not come up with an answer."

-- Hokie (nn@va.com), December 29, 1999