Uganda targets violent youths
2007-09-18 23:14
Kampala - Uganda's government plans to 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% of children in
the region currently attend any school at all. And Kajara said
only 12% 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".