Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
6 January 2009
Mogadishu — Ahmed Dirie Ali, a spokesman of Hawiye Traditional Elders has denounced the request of Uganda and Burundi from the African Union to send war planes and military equipment into Somalia to fight the Somali insurgents on Tuesday.
Burundi and Uganda said on Sunday they wanted their troops serving in the African Union peacekeeping force in Somalia to be allowed to take action against insurgents.
"The Somali people do not have a grudge to the African Union peace keepers so I call for Uganda and Burundi to abstain massacring our civilians,"Ahmed Diriye told radio Shabelle.
"We call for Uganda and Burundi to withdraw their troops from Somalia because we don not need any more shelling," he added.
The statement of the Spokesman comes as Ethiopia missed a deadline Monday about the complete withdrawal of its troops from Somalia.
More than 10,000 civilians have been killed in two years of fighting between the Ethiopian troops and Islamist insurgents , a million people have fled their homes and a third of the population rely on emergency aid.
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