Mogadishu, April 4, 2007 – The traditional elders of the Hawiye tribe have for the first time spoken out the plane carrying the Saudi deported passengers that were rejected by the Puntland authorities to land at the airport of Galkaayo city, the provincial capital of Mudug region in central Somalia.

A meeting held in Mogadishu, the Hawiye clan leaders condemned how the Puntland officials dealt with the deportees who were initially from the southern regions of Somali.

In a joint press statement they said:

The Hawiye leaders are strongly condemning the barbaric action by the Puntland state in which it made segregation to people deported from the Saudi Arabia while they were rejected to get off the plane as it flew to northwest regions of Somaliland.

 · The clan leaders are waiting from the clans in northeast Somalia to give response of the cruelty action by the Puntland authorities that it might cause new hostility among the brothers of the Somali clans.

The Hawiye leaders believe that president Yusuf was responsible of the clan discrimination and it follows to the events in the capital by the time he did not talk about it so far while he claims as the president of Somalia.

The Hawiye elders are thanking Somaliland officials for their respect and welcome to the deportees of their brothers.

The clan leaders are opposing the closure of the economic sources in the capital like Mogadishu seaport and airport after the interim government imposed unaffordable tariff on the goods imported and that caused high inflation.

The leaders are calling for the international community to keep a close eye to the recent truce between Ethiopian forces and Hawiye clan elders as the interim government dismissed the truce and want it to be broken.

Source: Shabelle Media Network