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Up to 230 Die in Uganda Cult Mass Suicide

Story Filed: Saturday, March 18, 2000 10:30 AM EST

KAMPALA (Reuters) - Up to 230 members of a Ugandan Doomsday cult have set themselves ablaze, police said on Saturday, taking their lives in the world's second biggest ritual mass suicide.

Followers of the obscure ``Ten Commandments of God'' sect gathered in a church 200 miles southwest of the capital Kampala on Friday, a police spokesman told Reuters.

They set themselves on fire after several hours of chanting and singing.

``Prior to this incident their leader told believers to sell off their possessions and prepare to go to Heaven,'' the spokesman said.

Police put the death toll between 100 and 230.

No further details were immediately available.

Only a 1978 mass suicide had more victims. Then, paranoid U.S. pastor, the Reverend Jim Jones, led 914 followers to their deaths at Jonestown, Guyana, by drinking a cyanide-laced fruit drink.

Cult members who refused to swallow the liquid were shot. Jones had carved a sign over his altar at Jonestown, reading ''Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it.''

In recent years there have been several smaller group suicides in Europe and North America, three of them involving the Solar Temple, an international sect that believes death by ritual suicide leads to rebirth.

Last September, Ugandan police disbanded another Doomsday cult, the 1,000-member ``World Message Last Warning'' sect.

The cult's leaders were charged with rape, kidnapping and illegal confinement.

Copyright ) 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. http://library.northernlight.com/HA20000318720000017.html?cb=200&dx=2006&sc=0#doc

-- (Dee360Degree@aol.com), March 18, 2000

Answers

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/africa/newsid_532000/5322 60.stm

(background)

Thursday, 25 November, 1999, 12:31 GMT Ugandan millennium cult smashed

The camp of a self-styled teenage prophetess who is said to eat nothing but honey has been raided and disbanded by police in Western Uganda.

The authorities regarded the camp run by Nabassa Gwajwa, 19, as a security threat, with rebels known to have infiltrated the area.

About 100 riot police, on government orders, raided the illegal camp at Ntusi in Sembabule district on Friday, arresting her and her parents and transporting hundreds of her followers back to their home regions.

Police Spokesman Eric Naigambi said on Monday that "something sinister" had been going on at the camp and they were now investigating.

He said that the prophetess claims to have died in 1996 and received a vision in which God told her that she had been chosen to urge people to repent before the year 2000.

"She urged people to sell off their property and follow her," Mr Naigambi said.

'Sodom'

Local people are reported to refer to Nabassa's camp as "Sodom".

Her cult is a mixture of Christianity and local customs, in which the spirits of Hima and Tutsi ancestors are said to speak through a living prophet.

About 100 people, mostly women, were reported to be in the camp at the time of the raid.

The population had previously reached 500, and included senior officials who are members of President Yoweri Museveni's Hima ethnic group, Mr Naigambi said.

The raid came after numerous attempts to persuade the camp followers to disband voluntarily.

"Security officials were not happy because senior officials were going there, and as the camp was not secured, there was fear for their safety," Mr Naigambi said.

The camp is the second to be closed in the past two months after police stormed and disbanded a camp in central Uganda's Luwero district in September run by another self-styled prophet, Wilson Bushara, who is still on the run. That camp had more than 1,000 followers.

(end of article)

-- viewer (justp@ssing.by), March 18, 2000.

Yikes! Thanks.

-- Mara (MaraWayne@aol.com), March 18, 2000.

This is amazing to me. One thing you can't do in the faith of christ is too kill yourself. They cann,t be forgiven.

-- ET (bneville@zebra.net), March 18, 2000.

Good. Evolution in action.

-- A (A@AisA.com), March 19, 2000.

HehHehHehHeh....Anyone got some streaming video to this?HehHehHeh That would be cool!!HehHehHeh FIRE!FIRE!FIRE!HehHeeehHeeehHeh....

-- Beavis (still@Butthead's.house), March 19, 2000.

Looks like at least ~470, perhaps as many as 600 now.

Fox News Link

-- Deb M. (vmcclell@columbus.rr.com), March 20, 2000.

Religion and miracles is magic you *do* believe in.

Magic and myth is religion you *don't* believe in.

-- gilda (jess@listbot.com), March 20, 2000.