Uganda cult arrest warrants issued

A wreath is placed at a burial site

Authorities in Uganda have issued warrants for the arrest of six leaders of the doomsday religious cult on charges of murder.

The six are blamed for the death of almost 100 followers, but it is not known where they are or even if they are still alive.

Hundreds of members of the cult - the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God - were found dead in a burnt-out church in the south-western village of Kanungu last month.

The cult's handbook appears to offer few clues over the deaths

Suspicions that many had been murdered were strengthened when scores more bodies found elsewhere bore marks of violence.

The six leaders targetted include Joseph Kibwetere, known as the prophet of the cult, Credonia Mwerinde, a former prostitute known as its programmer, and Dominic Kataribabo, a former Roman Catholic priest.

Each has been initially charged with 10 counts of murder, although more charges are expected to follow.

International assistance

"We believe they are alive and in hiding," acting director of the Criminal Investigation Division Erasmus Opia, said.

"We have no evidence to the contrary."

Mr Opia said the authorities had contacted the international police criminal organisation, Interpol, for help tracking down the cult's leaders.

Around 400 members of the cult died in the fire on 17 March, but since then the bodies of hundreds of other people, including those of many women and children, have been found in mass graves on properties linked to members of the cult.

Warnings

In another development, the authorities in Kampala are reported to have sent local police a "very urgent" warning that the sect was said to be kidnapping children and burying those who died in mass graves.

The Associated Press (AP) news agency quoting official documents says police dismissed the kidnap warnings as "a little bit unfounded" and rejected the mass grave claim entirely.

The news agency says the documents did not indicate what the children had died of or how many had died.

Officials are reported to have investigated a sudden series of deaths among the cult's children at one of the movement's compounds in 1999 but were told they had died of malaria.

AP says the matter was dropped after police were given documents indicating that the cult was a legal non-governmental organisation.

There has been widespread speculation that the deaths followed the failure to come true of predictions of the end of the world.

Cult members, who were told to sell their possessions and give the proceeds to the movement, had been told that they would enter a new world "free of sorrow and misery."