530 in Uganda Church Burned Alive, Tests Show

The 530 people who died in a doomsday cult’s chapel burned alive, consumed by gasoline-fueled flames and trapped behind doors and windows bolted from the outside, forensic tests showed Tuesday.

A.B.M. Lugudo, deputy commissioner of Uganda’s forensics agency, said investigators are trying to learn what role may have been played by three people whose corpses, less thoroughly charred, were found in a separate room of the chapel.

“We are still looking to see if these people started the fire and tried to run away, but got caught up in the fire,” he said. The explosive fire destroyed the Christian-based doomsday sect’s chapel at Kanungu on March 17 and killed everyone inside.

The blaze prompted a search that uncovered an additional 394 bodies at compounds connected to the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God in southwestern Uganda.

The cult’s leaders remain the key suspects, although investigators have yet to determine whether they too died in their sect’s cataclysmic end.

“It’s possible they are still at large,” said Richard Buteera, director of public prosecutions. “If they are alive, it’s just a matter of hunting them down.”

Uganda suspended digging for any more victims Friday, stung by press criticism for putting barehanded inmates to work exhuming corpses. Investigators said they will resume the exhumations only when they have the proper equipment--including rubber gloves.

“We will be meeting with police to assess where we are and where the areas of need are before making a formal appeal for international help,” said Edward Rugamya, minister of internal affairs.