Doomsday Cult Leader Could Be A Mental Case

March 31, 2000


KAMPALA, Uganda (PANA) - The police in Uganda now fear that the exact number
of people killed by the leaders of a religious sect in south-western Uganda
might never be known.

In the latest development, police Thursday unearthed 81 bodies, including
those of 44 children, on the property of a member of the Movement for the
Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, identified as Joseph Nyamurinda.

Twenty-seven girls, 17 boys and 33 women were among the bodies pulled out
from a large hole in the garden of the house.

Nyamurinda's house is in Rushojwa, about 35 km north-east of Kanungu, in
neighbouring Bushenyi district.

The mass grave is the fifth to be discovered since the 17 March fire in
Kanungu, the cult's headquarters, which killed over 530 people.

Meanwhile, it has been confirmed that cult leader, Joseph Kibwetere, was a
hospitalised mental patient until less than two years ago.

"He had an affective disorder. A cyclical thing. Up and down. Like manic
depress," Dr. Fred Kigozi, executive director of Kampala's Butabika mental
hospital, told a Kampala daily.

He said Kibwetere suffered from a serious mental illness that required him
to be institutionalised for treatment.

Kigozi added that Kibwetere was released sometime in 1998.

Medical experts say manic depression, also known as bipolar mood disorder in
its more severe forms, causes a person to lose contact with reality and
experience false beliefs, especially of grandeur ("I am the president"), ("I
am God"). It could also be of a sexual nature or the patient could hear
voices and see visions.

The illness also causes deep depression and suicide is the most common cause
of death for people with manic depression.

Experts say that people with the illness are not aware of their actions and
don't realise they are sick.

The illness can be treated but medical experts say if not diagnosed and
treated, the impact of the illness can be devastating to the individual,
others and society in general.

Kibwetere never returned to the hospital for treatment after being released.
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