Kibwetere arrest warrant still on
Mar 17, 2009
<b>Also in this section: </b></i><br>- <b>Kibwetere is dead — wife</b><br>- <b>Kanungu massacre, a mystery still unresolved</b></i><br><br>NINE years since the grisly Kanungu inferno that claimed lives of about 500 people, the Police say the arrest
Also in this section:
- Kibwetere is dead — wife
- Kanungu massacre, a mystery still unresolved
By Steven Candia
NINE years since the grisly Kanungu inferno that claimed lives of about 500 people, the Police say the arrest warrants for the perpetrators still stand.
The internal affairs ministry permanent secretary, Stephen Kagoda,yesterday said although no progress had been made, the file remained open and the CID was ready to swing into action.
Asked whether there was any information on the whereabouts of the suspects, Kagoda said: “There is nothing and that is why the arrest warrants were issued.â€
It is on this day in 2000 that members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments, a cult, barricaded themselves in a makeshift church in Kanungu, Kinkizi county in the then Rukungiri district.
They sang hymns, doused themselves with petrol and set themselves ablaze.
The tragedy was initially suspected to be mass suicide. However, subsequent evidence of several mass graves pointed at a premeditated murder, raising the number of people killed to 1,000.
This prompted the Police to issue warrants of arrest for self-styled prophet Joseph Kibwetere and his colleagues Credonia Mwerinde, Ursula Komuhangi, Henry Byarugaba and Fr. Dominic Kataribaabo, in March 2000.
The International Police, Interpol, issued a red notice for the cult leaders.
The criminal investigations chief, Okoth Ochola, also said they had not received any information.
He urged whoever has any clues, to contact the Police.
The whereabouts of the suspects is shrouded in mystery, making the arrests a remote possibility.
-------------------------------------
Kibwetere is dead — wife
---------------------------------------
By Mugisha Rwambuka
Self-styled prophet Joseph Kibwetere is still on the Government wanted list, but his wife Theresa Kibwetere insists he is dead.
“He is not alive. He died a few months before the massacre. I am amused that people still think he is alive,†Theresa said in an interview at her home in Kabumba village in Ntungamo district yesterday.
She made the same statement nine years ago to investigators and the press just after the inferno.
She said Kibwetere died of natural causes and promised to take investigators to the grave if they were interested in ocular proof.
Theresa said the cult was pioneered by Credonia Mwerinde and ex-Roman Catholic priest Rev. Fr. Dominic Kataribaho.
“My husband joined them later,†she said.
She noted that her husband had a mental illness.
“It could be the reason he joined the cult, without thinking about it seriously,†she observed.
Theresa said she could not stand the new religion and seperated with Kibwetere.
She moved to live alone in another home they had built in Kabumba.
Theresa said she and Kibwetere have seven children.
Her home is about 15 kilometres away from Rwashamire trading centre.
Her old red-roof house is shielded away from the rest of the village by a bush.
---------------------------------------------------------
Kanungu massacre, a mystery still unresolved
----------------------------------------------------------
By Conan Businge
It is nine years today since the horrible and devastating Kanungu massacre occurred.
On that fateful day, about 500 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God were burnt to death in Kinkizi county in the south-western Uganda district of Kanungu, about 50km from Rukungiri town.
The victims were doused with petrol and paraffin, before being set ablaze.
Days after the inferno, six more bodies were discovered in a pit at the residence of the church leaders.
Yet another 494 bodies would be found days later, under the cult’s buildings in Buhinga, Rutoma and Rukungiri.
Other buildings and mass graves were found at Rugazi, Bunyaruguru, Rushojwa and Buziga in Kampala.
Pathologists’ reports showed that many of the victims were clubbed, strangled or hacked to death.
It was also believed that some of them could have been poisoned.
The cult was headed by self-styled prophet, Joseph Kibwetere and ex-Roman Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Dominic Kataribaho, Credonia Mwerinde and John Kamagara.
Area residents said Kibwetere had collected money from believers for a trip to Europe, in quest of a replica of the Biblical Noah’s Ark.
Two days to the massacre, the residents said, the cult members had thrown a big party for themselves. They also gathered their personal belongings and those of the church and set them ablaze in the middle of the camp.
The following day, they toured the villages bidding farewell to their friends and neighbours.
The sect was registered under the NGO Statute in 1997 to carry countrywide activities to observe the Ten Commandments, preach the word of Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary and provide education and health care.
Well, it is close to a decade since, but nothing has yielded from condemnations and warrants of arrest issued for the leaders.
Their whereabouts is to date not known, or at least is not in the public domain.
Days after the massacre, President Yoweri Museveni vowed that the Government would intensify the hunt for the cult leaders after he inspected the scene.
“Forget this scandal and concentrate on building your families and improving your incomes. We shall arrest those people if they are still alive,†Museveni, said then.
The then second deputy premier and internal affairs minister, Moses Ali, in December 2000 appointed Justice Augustus Kania to head a committee to probe the massacre.
But to date, the report has never been released.
The massacre scene has been eaten up by a bush and unlike in the past when the place was guarded, these days it is abandoned.
So, will justice also be engulfed by the ‘bushes’ as years go by? Only time will tell.
- Kibwetere is dead — wife
- Kanungu massacre, a mystery still unresolved
By Steven Candia
NINE years since the grisly Kanungu inferno that claimed lives of about 500 people, the Police say the arrest warrants for the perpetrators still stand.
The internal affairs ministry permanent secretary, Stephen Kagoda,yesterday said although no progress had been made, the file remained open and the CID was ready to swing into action.
Asked whether there was any information on the whereabouts of the suspects, Kagoda said: “There is nothing and that is why the arrest warrants were issued.â€
It is on this day in 2000 that members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments, a cult, barricaded themselves in a makeshift church in Kanungu, Kinkizi county in the then Rukungiri district.
They sang hymns, doused themselves with petrol and set themselves ablaze.
The tragedy was initially suspected to be mass suicide. However, subsequent evidence of several mass graves pointed at a premeditated murder, raising the number of people killed to 1,000.
This prompted the Police to issue warrants of arrest for self-styled prophet Joseph Kibwetere and his colleagues Credonia Mwerinde, Ursula Komuhangi, Henry Byarugaba and Fr. Dominic Kataribaabo, in March 2000.
The International Police, Interpol, issued a red notice for the cult leaders.
The criminal investigations chief, Okoth Ochola, also said they had not received any information.
He urged whoever has any clues, to contact the Police.
The whereabouts of the suspects is shrouded in mystery, making the arrests a remote possibility.
-------------------------------------
Kibwetere is dead — wife
---------------------------------------
By Mugisha Rwambuka
Self-styled prophet Joseph Kibwetere is still on the Government wanted list, but his wife Theresa Kibwetere insists he is dead.
“He is not alive. He died a few months before the massacre. I am amused that people still think he is alive,†Theresa said in an interview at her home in Kabumba village in Ntungamo district yesterday.
She made the same statement nine years ago to investigators and the press just after the inferno.
She said Kibwetere died of natural causes and promised to take investigators to the grave if they were interested in ocular proof.
Theresa said the cult was pioneered by Credonia Mwerinde and ex-Roman Catholic priest Rev. Fr. Dominic Kataribaho.
“My husband joined them later,†she said.
She noted that her husband had a mental illness.
“It could be the reason he joined the cult, without thinking about it seriously,†she observed.
Theresa said she could not stand the new religion and seperated with Kibwetere.
She moved to live alone in another home they had built in Kabumba.
Theresa said she and Kibwetere have seven children.
Her home is about 15 kilometres away from Rwashamire trading centre.
Her old red-roof house is shielded away from the rest of the village by a bush.
---------------------------------------------------------
Kanungu massacre, a mystery still unresolved
----------------------------------------------------------
By Conan Businge
It is nine years today since the horrible and devastating Kanungu massacre occurred.
On that fateful day, about 500 members of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God were burnt to death in Kinkizi county in the south-western Uganda district of Kanungu, about 50km from Rukungiri town.
The victims were doused with petrol and paraffin, before being set ablaze.
Days after the inferno, six more bodies were discovered in a pit at the residence of the church leaders.
Yet another 494 bodies would be found days later, under the cult’s buildings in Buhinga, Rutoma and Rukungiri.
Other buildings and mass graves were found at Rugazi, Bunyaruguru, Rushojwa and Buziga in Kampala.
Pathologists’ reports showed that many of the victims were clubbed, strangled or hacked to death.
It was also believed that some of them could have been poisoned.
The cult was headed by self-styled prophet, Joseph Kibwetere and ex-Roman Catholic priest, Rev. Fr. Dominic Kataribaho, Credonia Mwerinde and John Kamagara.
Area residents said Kibwetere had collected money from believers for a trip to Europe, in quest of a replica of the Biblical Noah’s Ark.
Two days to the massacre, the residents said, the cult members had thrown a big party for themselves. They also gathered their personal belongings and those of the church and set them ablaze in the middle of the camp.
The following day, they toured the villages bidding farewell to their friends and neighbours.
The sect was registered under the NGO Statute in 1997 to carry countrywide activities to observe the Ten Commandments, preach the word of Jesus Christ and Virgin Mary and provide education and health care.
Well, it is close to a decade since, but nothing has yielded from condemnations and warrants of arrest issued for the leaders.
Their whereabouts is to date not known, or at least is not in the public domain.
Days after the massacre, President Yoweri Museveni vowed that the Government would intensify the hunt for the cult leaders after he inspected the scene.
“Forget this scandal and concentrate on building your families and improving your incomes. We shall arrest those people if they are still alive,†Museveni, said then.
The then second deputy premier and internal affairs minister, Moses Ali, in December 2000 appointed Justice Augustus Kania to head a committee to probe the massacre.
But to date, the report has never been released.
The massacre scene has been eaten up by a bush and unlike in the past when the place was guarded, these days it is abandoned.
So, will justice also be engulfed by the ‘bushes’ as years go by? Only time will tell.