KAMPALA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni vowed on Tuesday to intensify the forceful disarming of bandits in the lawless northeast, brushing off U.N. criticism that the army is committing grave abuses against civilians.

United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour last month accused the Ugandan military of "indiscriminate and excessive" force during 'cordon and search' operations against armed cattle raiders in the Karamoja region.

Fifty-five civilians including women and children were killed in the military sweep. A U.N. report accused the army of rape and torture.

"Cordon and search will continue and be intensified," Museveni told reporters. "If you come out without resisting there is no problem, but if they resist then we will fight fire with fire."

Semi-arid Karamoja has for decades been a flashpoint for ethnic rivalries between heavily armed bandits who kill, rape and rob, often crossing porous borders with Kenya and Sudan to attack villages and steal cows.

The governments of Kenya and Uganda are intent on bringing law and order to the poor, conflict-prone region flooded with cheap semi-automatic weapons but few other modern technologies.

But the U.N. says a six-month Ugandan army operation to disarm Karamojong warriors has exacerbated the conflict by being too heavy-handed and failing to distinguish fighters from civilians.

"The donors are talking nonsense as usual. They talk about things they don't know about," Museveni said, accusing the U.N. of double standards.

"The biggest violators of human rights are the cattle rustlers. How many people in Karamoja are widows or orphans because their husbands have been killed?" he said.

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