Rwanda, Fearing Cult Deaths, Detains 8 People in Christian Sect

Fearing a repetition of the cult deaths that horrified neighboring Uganda, Rwandan authorities have detained eight members of an obscure Christian sect on charges of illegal assembly and unauthorized worship.

The eight members of the Minevam sect were taken into custody Wednesday, but three have been released after promising to abandon their round-the-clock regimen of prayer, said Karegyesa Kamiri, a local official in Byumba, 30 miles north of Kigali, the capital.

Kamiri said no links had been established between the Minevam sect and Uganda’s Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God.

A March 17 fire in the Ugandan movement’s chapel in the southwestern Ugandan village of Kanungu killed 530 people. After the inferno, authorities unearthed 394 corpses in mass graves in nearby villages.

Kamiri defended the detention of the Minevam sect members.

“We don’t want to experience the kind of horror that took place in Uganda,” he said.

Kamiri said the members--whom he described as “school dropouts”--insisted that God was coming but otherwise refused to talk with police or disclose details about their sect or its name.

The eight Rwandans, both men and women, had abandoned school and retreated to an unfinished house near the central market in Byumba, where they spent day and night in prayer, Kamiri said.

“They’ve been operating without the knowledge of authorities,” he said. “The place does not fulfill necessary conditions for worship. It is not a church.”