KAMPALA, Sept 18 (Reuters) - Uganda's government will introduce compulsory education in a remote northeast region to try to give children there an alternative to a life of violence and cattle rustling, officials said on Tuesday.

Warriors toting assault rifles have long plagued Karamoja, an impoverished semi-arid area bordering Kenya and south Sudan that is notorious for looting, ambushes and livestock raids.

"Compulsory educations will help persuade children from thinking they can make a livelihood from cattle and guns," Aston Kajara, minister of state in charge of Karamoja, told reporters.

The authorities estimate that only 28 percent of children in the region currently attend any school at all. And Kajara said only 12 percent actually complete primary education.

The government would build new boarding schools, he told a news conference, and attendance would be mandatory.

Uganda's army has been accused of using indiscriminate force against Karamoja civilians during operations that the military says recovered more than 1,500 illegal weapons this year alone.

The government dismissed the latest such allegations, in a Human Rights Watch report last week, as "baseless and biased".

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