KANUNGU, Uganda -- They removed their followers from the influences of home and family. They hoodwinked or bribed local authorities, and they kept their flock hungry and silent.
An intricate system of controls allowed leaders of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God to orchestrate, and seemingly get away with, the murder of hundreds of followers.At least 530 of them were boarded into a building last month and burned alive at the cult's headquarters in this remote corner of southwestern Uganda. The blaze, initially treated as a mass suicide, turned out to be the fiery climax of a killing rampage that investigators believe was intended to fulfill an apocalyptic agenda. About 400 other sect members were killed in previous weeks or months and dumped in mass graves at several other cult compounds.
A month after the grisly discovery of the mass graves, there are still many unanswered questions about the cult, including precisely when and how the killings were carried out, by whom, the exact identity of most of the victims and the fate of the cult leaders. Although a massive manhunt has been launched and international arrest warrants issued, police have little proof that the cult leaders are all still alive. Overwhelmed and ill-equipped investigators are piecing together evidence from the scant observations of neighbors, accounts from former cult members and fearful rural communities.
Still, from that sketchy information, a picture is emerging of how the cult leaders were able to avoid suspicion of family members and neighbors as they engaged in their killing spree, and prevent authorities from cracking down on them.
Normally, there are relatively few police in the rural area, and officials who should have been keeping an eye on the cult either failed or were bribed.
Instead of the southwest, Ugandan security forces are focused in the high-risk west and north of the country, where insurgencies are common. "We were taken off guard," said police spokesman Assuman Mugenyi.
Investigators also suspect the deputy resident district commissioner, who has been arrested, blocked moves to penetrate the group despite reports of child kidnapping and possible rebel infiltration -- either because he had been bribed or because he may have been a cult member. Mugenyi said the official was seen having lunch with the cult's leaders the day before the March 17 inferno.
Orders have also been issued for the arrest of the head of the local office of the Criminal Investigation Division on charges of "culpable negligence." Two months before the inferno, he had been ordered to investigate the group, but gave it a clean bill of health.
International arrest warrants have been issued for six of the cult's leaders including the suspected masterminds: Joseph Kibwetere, 68, a failed politician and self-styled bishop; Credonia Mwerinde, 48, a former prostitute believed to be the de facto head of the cult; and Dominic Kataribabo, 64, a defrocked Catholic priest.
"We are hunting for these people," Mugenyi said. "We want them dead or alive."
Investigators and community leaders believe there could have been up to 5,000 cult members, and that some of them could be hiding the leaders. Only a few people have responded to police appeals and reported the disappearance of kin, making it difficult to determine how many more members there might be.
But official failure cannot alone be blamed for the cult's success at deceiving a whole community.
Members, predominately poor former Catholics, were sworn to silence -- unable to utter a single word except during prayer.