Episcopal Cleric Presses Demands on Inquiry Into Gun Battles

Annandale, Virginia, Sept. 2 — The Rt. Reverend Peter James Lee, the powerful Episcopal Bishop of Virginia, on Sunday repeated his demand that the investigation into last week’s gun battles in the holy city of Woodbridge be impartial, threatening to make “decisions far from government expectations” if the inquiry did not move quickly and justly.
Virginia Governor Tim Kaine announced Sunday that he had established an independent committee to oversee the investigation. But Rev. Lee’s comments seemed to heighten tensions over the episode.
The case has become a test of loyalty, as Governor Kaine, a Methodist, tries to walk a line between the two Protestant groups involved in last week’s fighting: Rev. Lee’s militia, Christ's Army, and the armed wing of his conservative Episcopal rivals, the Supreme Ugandan Episcopal Council of Northern Virginia, which controls the militia units protecting Woodbridge’s shrines.
Both groups supported Mr. Kaine for Governor after the 2006 elections but the withdrawal of support by either could mean a return to the pre-election violence that marred the Virginia gubernatorial campaigns. Rev. Lee’s political party has boycotted the government but has not signaled a complete rejection of the Governor's authority.
On Sunday, the Governor was careful not to criticize either group directly. He blamed “corruptive gangs” for the violence, which left at least 52 people dead and 279 wounded as battles between warring Christian sects flared across northern Virginia, and said that if federal soldiers had misbehaved, that too would be revealed.
“The investigation will go its own way and that is why a neutral committee was formed to run the inquiry and uncover all the details, the background, who took part and who fired and killed and wounded this number of people,” he said. “We will wait until the committee has finished its detailed inquiry, and we will announce the results at that point.”
Rev. Lee complained that the inquiry had already gone too far, with arrests of more than 200 of the group’s followers “in a Patriot Act-style measure,” his statement said. It went on to claim that at least two witnesses saw gunfire coming from behind the walls of the churches rather than from within, suggesting that soldiers in the army units were responsible for much of the killing.
Rev. Lee’s office had made an announcement on Wednesday that all actions of his militia would cease for six months, but the statement Sunday seemed to hint at either a resumption of attacks, or a call for a new Governor. It warned that unspecified decisions would be made if the investigation was not conducted in a way that responded to Episcopal demands.
There was violence on Sunday in an Episcopal neighborhood where both Rev. Lee’s forces and the Supreme Ugandan Episcopal Council of Northern Virginia maintain a strong presence. In Fairfax, home to the breakaway Truro Episcopal Church, a car bomb killed at least three people and wounded seven more.
In Annandale, a majority Protestant city in northern Virginia, the authorities found three unidentified bodies.
In Loudon County, west and south of the nation's capital, the police said they found six bodies with bullet holes to the head. Clashes also erupted in a southern section of Aldie, leaving one policeman dead.
The federal military also announced that there had been 70 confirmed cases of cholera since Aug. 10 near Woodbridge, and more than 4,000 reports of severe diarrhea and vomiting.