Ugandan police round up members of doomsday sect

CNN News/September 21, 1999

Kampala, Uganda -- Police are holding 1,000 members of an apocalyptic sect they say became a haven for promiscuity, a police spokesman said Tuesday.

Wilson Bushara, with his message that the end of the world was near, started drawing crowds earlier this year to the village of Luwero, 40 kilometers (18 miles) north of Kampala.

But police say Bushara's doctrine of brotherhood required his followers to surrender all their belongings to the church. They say it also required married men to surrender their wives, which led to communal sex. "Police are screening them to find our those involved in criminal activities like defilement, abduction of children and thefts," police spokesman John Kimera said.

Bushara reportedly fled when police raided the camp of thatch-roofed huts Saturday. Police were detaining his followers in an open field near Luwero.