Geneva to Host Public Information Center on Cults

Six years after 48 members of the Solar temple cult were killed or committed suicide in western Switzerland, the authorities in Geneva are to open the first public information center on cults in the country, according to a Swiss Radio International report Monday.

The Geneva-based Center for Information on Beliefs, due to be open to the public next January, is created with cooperation among eight cantons, Geneva, Neuchatel, Jura, Fribourg, Valais, Vaud, Ticino and Berne, most of them in the French-speaking region of Switzerland.

On the night of October 4, 1994, 48 people were murdered or killed themselves in the belief they were being transferred to another planet. 25 died at the small skiing resort of Granges-sur-Salvan in canton Valais. Another 23 perished in the village of Cheiry, in canton Fribourg. Some had been shot in the head several times.

In the wake of the deaths, the Justice department in Geneva invited the other cantons to join it in exchanging information on cult activities.

"We realized there was a need for adequate information concerning cults, both to prevent tragedies and to improve the awareness of the public," said Francois Bellanger, the Geneva's Justice department's expert on cults, who conducted the report.

"The aim of the center is to provide neutral information to the public about different beliefs," he said. The center will obtain information from religious groups willing to cooperate, as well as from private groups which help victims of sects and from university researchers.

Geneva is one of the Swiss cantons subtly tightening legislation in this area. The local parliament is considering two laws, one designed to help the victims of cults and another which would crack down on the commercial activities of religious organizations.

For now the center will operate primarily in the French-speaking part of Switzerland. "It is to be hoped that one day the federal government will change its mind and we will have a center for the whole of Switzerland," Bellanger said.

As a prelude to the creation of the center, the Geneva authorities will this autumn publish a booklet, aimed at potential victims and parents, outlining the dangers of cults.



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