Police commander Freddie Kayima has waited long enough for Uganda's top cops to make it to his patch of the western jungle, where a cult site and its ominous secrets stood unstudied.

Kayima - 33, impatient and utterly unequipped - decided to go it alone in what could be the world's largest murder investigation.

Since a March 17 fire burned hundreds of cult members to death in a slipshod chapel in Kanungu, Uganda's cash-strapped police have struggled to keep up with the discovery of hundreds more hacked, strangled bodies in pits - falling behind so badly that they are considering a formal international appeal for the most basic gear such as rubber gloves.

(China Daily 2000/04/06)