53 bodies found in cult leader's house

RUGAZI (UGANDA), MARCH 29. The Ugandan police pulled 53 more bodies today from the house of a leader of a doomsday cult suspected of murdering hundreds of its members.

The house and garden of ``Father'' Domenic Kataribabo of ``the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God'' have so far yielded 155 dead, some strangled, some poisoned. The latest finds take to over 800 the number of corpses, among them more than 100 children, found in mass graves and a burnt-out church used by the cult in southwest Uganda. Police said they had enough evidence to bring murder charges against Kataribabo, who is believed to be on the run along with other cult leaders. They are thought to have begun systematically slaying their followers after a prediction that the world would end on December 31, 1999, proved false.

The police pathologist, Mr. Thaddeus Burungi, said some of the victims had been strangled or stabbed to death while liver samples showed some had been poisoned. The head of the police investigation, Mr. Godfrey Bangirana, said police had enough evidence to charge Kataribabo with murder - if they found him. ``If you find dead bodies in the house, isn't the owner of the house the principal suspect? Don't I have evidence to charge him? Definitely I do,'' Mr. Bangirana said.

Mr. Burungi said the Rugazi bodies had been buried for less than six months, although it was difficult to determine precisely when the victims were killed.

- Reuters

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