Bru people returning to Mizoram from Tripura in buses on September 24
Newmai News Network
Aizawl | September 26
At least 11 more Bru families have returned from Tripura to Mizoram on Wednesday even as the deadline for repatriation expired on Tuesday evening, Mizoram Home department officials said.
It can be noted here that, before the lapse of the stipulated period of September 25, a number of Bru families from Tripura had returned to Mizoram.
Lalbiaksangi, Joint Secretary of the Mizoram State Home department, said this evening that 11 Bru families were repatriated today to Mamit district of Mizoram. “Although 17 families are said to have returned to Mizoram according to initial information, only 11 families have returned from relief camps in Tripura on wednesday. The refugees will be re-settled in Mamit district,” the official said.
Of the 11 Bru families comprising 67 people, 7 families will settle in Sihthiang village, 3 families in Bungthuam village and one family in Bawrai village, all in Mamit district, an official statement said this evening. The repatriated families were given Rs 5000 each as repatriation compensation, the statement added.
Lalbiaksangi said that the state government will cooperate the Union Home Ministry in repatriating the willing Bru families although the deadline for repatriation has already expired on Tuesday (September 25) evening.
According to Lalbiaksangi, 17 Bru families repatriated from Hazacherra relief camp on September 19 are currently lodging at makeshift camp in Tlabung town in Mizoram’s Lunglei district bordering Bangladesh.
Meanwhile, the Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples’ Coordination Committee (MBDPCC) has remained adamant that the Bru families will not return to Mizoram unless the Centre fulfills their charter of demands.
MBDPCC president, Laldingliana Reang said they had submitted seven-point demands to the Union Home Ministry and they are yet to receive any response. Among others, the MBDPCC demanded creation of Area Development Council (ADC) for the Brus in Mizoram, allocation of five hectares of land to each refugee family, cluster villages with each housing at least 500 families, Rs.4 lakh compensation to each family before repatriation and revision of electoral rolls in relief camps.
Laldingliana Reang said that they are willing to return to Mizoram if the Centre fulfills at least "some important points" of their demands.
Earlier, the Centre had warned that it would stop doling out free ration to the Bru refugees from October 1 and close down all the relief camps once the repatriation is over (till September 25).
Laldingliana Reang said that they will first appeal to the Centre to continue extending free ration to the refugees failing which they will resort to agitation in "democratic way".
Thousands of Brus fled Mizoram and settled in Tripura following violence triggered by the murder of a Mizo forest guard by Bru militants in 1997.
According to the quadripartite agreement signed between the Centre, representatives of the Mizoram and Tripura governments and Bru leaders on July 3, about 32,876 Bru people belonging to 5,407 would return to Mizoram from August.
However, an initial attempt to repatriate the Bru tribal in August turned futile as no families barring three refused to return because they did not accept the repatriation package offered by the Centre.
