Bonn Probing Abuses by Sect in Chile

BONN —  West Germany has ordered home its ambassador in Chile to report on a religious colony where torture and child abuse are alleged to be widespread, the West German Foreign Ministry said Saturday.

It said Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher wanted Ambassador Horst Kullak-Ueblich to report on his visit to the Colonia Dignidad and to help start an independent panel to investigate the allegations.

The camp was founded in the early 1960s by Paul Schaefer, a Baptist sect leader, who went to Chile after West German police investigated a children’s home that he ran near Bonn.

According to accusations that have appeared mainly in West German publications, 300 members of the colony were alleged to have been held virtual prisoners in the camp.