Doomsday cult meeting proceeds despite guru's arrest
[January 19, 1999]
Members of Universal and Human Energy, also called SHY (Spirituality, Humanity, Yoga),
a doomsday cult predicting the end of the world in August, gathered in Geneva for a
conference Saturday as planned, despite the recent arrests of their guru, secretary, and
treasurer.
Last week, Luong Minh Dang, the cult's U.S.-based Vietnamese founder, known as Master
Dang, was arrested in Brussels along with the secretary and the treasurer of the cult.
Dang is allegedly suspected of fraud and practicing medicine illegally.
Organizers of the meeting claim 5,000 people from 50 countries were in attendance at the
conference near Geneva, but those estimates are not confirmed. Authorities in Geneva
received the necessary security guarantees to allow the meeting to proceed. The sect has a
branch near Geneva headed by Tri Thien Nguyen.
"The meeting, which is private, is authorized. We have been informed that this is an
apocalyptic cult but we have no information about plans for a collective suicide," a
police spokesman said, as quoted by Agence France Presse.
Source: Agence France Presse, January 16, 1999
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