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On this Page 1
Australia link
with Swiss
doomsday cult
GENEVA. Saturday: Several
separate Australian links emerged
today during investigations into the
deaths of 53 followers of a dooms
day cult in Switzerland and Cana-
da.
Various reports said the cult's
leader had been inquiring about
travelling to Australia and that a
number of cult followers died in
Sydney in January.
Other reports said that the cult
organised arms smuggling from
Australia where it owned a farm,
and that phone records showed a
large number of phone calls from
a Swiss cult house to Australia.
Australian authorities declined
immediate comment.
Police in Switzerland and Cana-
da are searching for Belgian ho-
meopathic doctor Luc Jouret, 46,
and Joseph di Mambro, a French
Canadian described by former fol-
lowers as the brains behind the Or-
der of the Solar Temple.
Police say it is likely that at
least some of the cult's 48 disciples
found dead on Wednesday in two
Swiss villages were murdered rath-
er than being willing participants
in collective suicide.
Another five bodies were found
in Quebec in Canada.
Nikki Robinson Dutoit, 30, and
three-month-old Christopher Em-
manuel were found with her hus-
band Antonio's body in a
burnt-out ski cabin used by the
cult.
The couple had been stabbed
several times and the baby, whose
body was found behind a water
heater, had a bag over his head,
said police spokeswoman Lucy
Boult.
Police said they think two
charred bodies discovered earlier
were those of adults who commit-
ted suicide.
The Swiss newspaper Nouveau
Quotidien in Lausanne yesterday
published extracts from a "farewell
letter" from the sect, saying that
members of the cult had been
eliminated in 1993 and' January
1994.
The document was one of three
received by the paper, sent by a
mysterious "D. Part, Golden
Strasse, Zurich" but postmarked
Geneva, 11am, on October 5, when
the bodies at Cheiry and Salvan
had already been found.
The document denounces "the
traitors, who have been punished
and will receive the punishment
they deserve in the centuries of
centuries" and states that "seven
people have already died, on the
night of March 31, 1993," without
giving a location, and that others
"left this world on January 6,
1994, at 0400 hours in Sydney".
The doomsday cult was involved
in international arms smuggling
and money-laundering operations,
Radio Canada reported yesterday.
The French-language govern-
ment-owned radio and television
authority said the mysterious Or-
der of the Solar Temple sect may
have earned hundreds of millions
of dollars from the operations,
laundering profits through the
now-defunct Bank of Credit and
Commerce International.
Continued on Page 2.

Several Australian links with Swiss doomsday order

Continued from Page 1.

It said orders went through Aus
tralia, where the cult owned a
farm, and that the weapons ended
up on the international market.
According to the report, the mon
ey laundering centre was an Otta
wa apartment rented by one of the
cult leaders, Joseph Di Mambro,
and his wife, Jocelyne Duplessis.

BBC television reported that Mr
Jouret had made inquiries about
travelling to Australia. The un

sourced BBC television report said
telephone bills from ;the chalets
showed there was a large number
of calls to Australia in recent
months and Mr Jouret was be
lieved to have visited a local travel
agent to inquire about flights to

Australia.

Mr Jouret and Mr di Mambro,
known as the "Dictator" to his
followers, visited their chalet hours
before rigged bombs set off fires in
it and other buildings associated

with the cult, an investigator said
on Friday.

Police found grey bin bags full
of petrol at the red-bedecked tem
ple at Granges which had been
wired to explode along with three
chalets, including the two where

the dead were discovered.

Police also found several dozen
hypodermic needles, intravenous
drips and small bottles with uni
dentified liquids inside. Some were
labelled "Adrenalin".

: .

A powerful drug was injected in
to several of the 23 victims in the
second village of Cheiry, investigat
ors said. A fireman who brought
several bodies out of a chalet gut

ted by fire said many of the dead'
there had "beatific smiles" on their
faces.

The investigating magistrate,
Jean-Pascal Jacquemet, had told
Swiss radio it was still unclear if
Mr Jouret or Mr di Mambro were
among the dead in Salvan. Their

bodies were not at Cheiry, scene of
the second Swiss massacre where
23 bodies were found.

Three rifles had been found near
the dead in Cheiry. But police said
none of them fired the shots that
most of .'the dead people, plastic
bags tied over their heads, had suf
fered.

While little has been disclosed
about Mr di Mambro by Swiss au
thorities, news media have begun
describing him as the mastermind

of the cult. Mr Jouret, a Belgian
doctor and leader of the mysteri
ous Order of the Solar Tradition,
and Mr di Mambro had a lock
smith let them into the chalet
about 4pm on Tuesday, Judge'Jac
quemet told Swiss radio.

The chalet was one of three that

began burning about 3.30 the fol
lowing morning, hours after fire
destroyed a farmhouse and barn
elsewhere in Switzerland.

Meanwhile, Geneva police have

seized bank documents and lists in
several houses and apartments of
people associated with the cult, a
police spokesman said.

He also said police had given
protection for two days after the

fires to a cult member who feared

reprisals.

Documents showed that several
cult members had been involved in
a dispute with the cult's leaders

over money, he said.

- AFP/AP

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