(Changes dateline, recasts) By Tim Cocks KAMPALA, Nov 24 (Reuters) - The Ugandan army used "indiscriminate and excessive" force while disarming bandits in a lawless northeastern region, killing 55 civilians including women and children, the U.N. said on Friday. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour called on the Ugandan People's Defence Force (UPDF) to halt a six-month campaign to disarm warriors and bandits until it could guarantee civilian safety in the Karamoja region. "The accounts in this report demonstrate the indiscriminate and excessive use of force by the UPDF during the disarmament exercise and the failure of the government of Uganda to provide adequate protection," Arbour's office said in a report. The Ugandan government rejected the allegations as biased. "I'm disappointed the U.N. is not talking about the human rights abuses of the Karamojong warriors. They rape, they kill, they kidnap. We have people in (refugee) camps for more than 40 years," State Minister for Defence Ruth Nankabirwa said. Nankabirwa said civilians were caught in the crossfire of military operations to tame a notoriously difficult region, where heavily armed bandits on both sides of the border with Kenya raid each other's cattle and kill, rape and rob. "In operations, there are casualties. It's unfortunate that innocent civilians die but it's not the intention." The report, based on a fact-finding mission, said most of the 48 killed in one incident in late October died in shooting between soldiers and armed villagers, but soldiers summarily executed six villagers. In two other cordon-and-search operations during the period of Oct. 29-Nov. 15, UPDF shot dead seven people, it said. "The UPDF was responsible for extrajudicial, summary and arbitrary executions in violation of international law," the report said. It also accused the army of 68 arbitrary arrests, 14 cases of torture, the rape of an elderly woman and the burning or destruction of over 200 homesteads. The violence had resulted in 500 persons fleeing in Kotido district, Karamoja. "The ongoing forced disarmament exercise in Karamoja must stop until adequate measures have been put in place to ensure the safety, security and full human rights protection of civilians," Arbour said. Karamojong warriors, who the report says have illegal weapons and have increasingly engaged in criminal activities, had also killed UPDF soldiers. Across the border, the Kenyan government has been accused of similar abuses in its own disarmament operations. The countries rarely coordinate effectively and bandits from rival tribes slip across the frontier to escape the dragnets.
