The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current, April 03, 2000, Image 14
WORLD Page 14 THE BATTALION Mondav. Parents in Uganda cult led children to deal BUNYARICI, Uganda (AP) — After her young grandchildren’s abrupt depar ture, after the gas-fueled flames and the chan'ed remains, 74-year-old Margaret Ki- betenga wonders if there’s something she could have done. On Dec. 28, her daughter-in-law came to her mud-walled home to fetch two chil dren she had left in Kibetenga’s care. Say ing she needed to take them to visit a sick relative, Jane Ayebare began packing her youngsters’ belongings. When Ayebare muttered something about the end of the world being near, Kibetanga thought little of it. Ayebare had joined a strange religious group, but as far as Kibetenga was concerned, she was still Catholic. Of course, the world didn't end Dec. 31, as the sect had predicted. But for Ayebare and her four children, life ended 10 weeks later in the flames of a sealed chapel be longing to Uganda’s doomsday cult. They were not alone. Terrified, trust ing or willingly marching off to glory, chil dren of the cult streamed out of hill vil lages by the hundreds to die trapped in the flames of the sealed church or by ropes and knives in the hands of grown-ups. Children made up a large part of the bodies recovered from mass graves in southwestern Uganda since the March 17 inferno at the chapel at Kanungu alerted the world, and some Ugandans, to the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of Cod. Authorities now are pursuing the sect’s leaders, who they believe masterminded the murders of at least 924 people. “I never took it seriously,” Kibetenga now says, her eyes dropping to the ground. For the movement, childhood was an occasion of sin. “These days... the major ity of the youths go to hell; only very few go to heaven in a day,” its handbook states. The sect’s leaders went to brutal lengths to ensure children wouldn’t fall into what they believed were the clutches of Satan. nailed shut and the children forced to sleep on the dirt floor, where many contracted scabies, a contagious skin disease. Children and their parents were “These days ... the majority of the youths go to hell; only very few go to heaven in a day” Ugandan cult handbook In the early 1990s, Credonia Mrewinde, one of the movement’s founders, forced 60 children to live in a 15- by-40-foot backyard shed in the village of Kabumba, according to Juvenal Rugamb- wa, son of sect leader Joseph Kibwetere. He said the shed's windows were placed in separate living quarters when they joined the sect, Rugambwa and for mer sect members said. Parents also were forced to withdraw their children from school. Rev. Paolino Tomaino, w ho became acquainted with the sect w hen he worked in Kabumba from 1976 to 1989, says it was inevitable that the children would fol low their parents, even to their deaths. “You would expect a Uganda child to follow his parent,” Tomaino said. “They were with their parents. I’m sure they couldn't leave.” John Katebalirwe sold his mud hut for $30, then forced his wife, 27-year-old mar ried daughter and her seven younger brothers and sisters away to attend a gath ering at sect headquarters in Kanungu. Neighbors say the wife and eight children went with him unw illingly. “1 le told us he was going to pray in Ka nungu,” said Aida Kaguze, who bought the hut from Katebalirwe. “They had heard from God, and they were going to meet Jesus.” On March 8, Katarina Tumuhimbise’s daughters, aged 8 and 14, left the remote western foothill village of Sweswe w ith adults who were leadingota the March 18 dedication ofai at the sect’s home in Kanungi Residents in Sweswe said cuts couldn’t afford to go tofe stead, they stayed behind ml younger children at their mudki bv a shrine with straw praentt tures of Jesus, the Virgin Man Tumuhimbse, rosaries di her neck as she spoke to a rep? membership as well and saida the sect had taken herchildrai! dent (io\ ernmc father chased after them, butu Their daughters were election Comn dinners of yel sect members on March 17»k trompted Jeff the chapel on the sect’smair in Kanungu to pray. they were enveloped by wkl; ;enioryell lead was a gas-fueled tire!; an explosive combination oft he Texas A A M sulphuric acid. Congolese rebels accuse Elian’s father prepares government of attacks to travel to U.S. for son KIGALI, Rwanda (AP) —As Congo slides back into war, Congolese rebels on Sunday said they had killed at least 20 government troops in fresh attacks by President Laurent Kabila’s army. Rebel spokesperson Kin-Kiey Mulumba said the Rwandan- backed rebels had fought off government attacks at Maloba and Kisele in southern, diamond-rich Kasai Province, killing 17 soldiers and capturing one. The lighting last week also left live rebels wounded, two ofthem in critical condition in a hos pital in the eastern rebel stronghold of Goma. “We’re lighting every' day. There is no cease-fire,” Mu lumba said on telephone from Goma. Despite a peace accord last August between Kabila and the rebels, fighting has resumed in Congo, frustrating efforts by the United Nations to deploy 5,500 U.N. cease-fire observers and troops to protect them. So far. more than 100 U.N. observers have been deployed in both govemment-and rebel-controlled Congo. But U.N. of ficials have warned that additional deployment will not be pos sible unless fighting ends. The peace accord was signed by rebel supporters Rwanda and Uganda, as well as Zimbabwe Angola and Namibia, who back Kabila. According to the deal, a cease-fire is supposed to be followed by the withdrawal of foreign troops from Congo and the disarmament of Rwandan and Burundian Hutu militia fighting alongside Kabila’s army. Meanwhile, the government set May 10 as the date for elec tions, the first since Kabila took power by force in 1997. He currently rules without a legislature. Interior MinisterGaetan Kakudji announced the date at a cer emony Saturday launching a five-member government office that w ill organize the vote. Kabila has said the 300-member body will involve the Congolese people in running the country and its defense, but he has not specified its powers and functions. Hie major opposition parties, however, have said they want nothing to do w ith the new assembly. They say the move is an at tempt to bypass a national dialogue on Congo’s political future. Kabila was expected Monday at an African-European summit in Cairo, together with Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and Angola’s Jose Eduardo dos Santos. African and European foreign ministers meeting before the summit agreed that there would be no specific mention of Africa’s various conflicts, although they did agree to promote con flict resolution. HAVANA (AP) — President Fidel Castro said Elian Gon zalez’s father was w illing to travel alone to the United Slates Monday morning if U.S. officials promise to turn over the boy to him and let them return to Cuba right away. Failing that, visas would be sought for father Juan Miguel Gonzalez and an entourage of more than 30 people to leave for the United States as early as Tuesday to try to get Elian back, Castro said Sunday during a live appear ance on national television. The announcement was made in a letter signed by Gon zalez, which Castro read. Gonzalez sat in the television au dience, looking distraught and exhausted. “1 am willing to leave tomorrow, absolutely alone and transport myself to where the child is,” Castro read from the letter. After picking up the child, the letter said, father and son would “return immediately to Cuba,” said Castro. Last week, Castro said Gonzalez was willing to travel to the United States and wait out the results of an appeal for cus tody by their Miami relatives in federal appellate court, if the U.S. government gave him custody of Elian in the meantime. Castro announced Sunday that the chief of the Cuban In terests Section in Washington was willing to give up diplo matic immunity over his residence in Washington. : communist government has proposed Gonzalez at the residence with I lian during the appeal.Thais peared aimed at reassuring U.S. officials that lA.! thority in the case would be accepted regardlesso! come of the appeal. The Justice Department has given the boy’sgra Lazaro Gonzalez, until Tuesday to sign a promise: der Elian if he and his family lose their court batik lez has so far refused to sign such a pledge. Before the announcement, Castro was shofu: al television playing the aff ectionate grandfather: first-grade classmates w ho plan to travel with the; ther to keep 1 lian company while waiting for thee tie to run its course. The box s and girls, wearing their red and whites forms, stared up from their blue plastic seats inthett studio at the tall uniformed man with the grayingk Patting some of the kids on the head, Castro a» that they formed a powerful “commando.” “Not even the Pentagon can handle these kids.’ “We are hoping that they get their visas.” Ri Meth BY MERE STUA Th< A change ir ind a senior ag or, to appeal th Bailey filed dent Judicial Bi ilack of notifii rs about the n majority vote, em used to d votes is inaccui The tenn “it n election regu The matter Student Judicia day. Once an a ‘I W ; ’J WE RE HERE TO HELP. Deliver yourself from finals and research stress by studying smarter and more efficiently. eBooks—electronic versions of published books—allow you to access specific content and search through text easily. 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