Newmai News Network Aizawl | October 20 The Mizoram government is all set to resume the Bru repatriation from November 2. Nearly 5000 Bru families lodged in six relief camps in North Tripura district are likely to be repatriated this time. According to government sources, over 3600 families will be resettled in Mamit district of Mizoram this time, over 600 in Kolasib, over 200 in Lunglei district. Assistant Nodal Officers and eight other Administrative officers in eight villages under Kolasib district and Mamit district of Mizoram where the repatriated Bru will be settled have been appointed to conduct the repatriation. About Rs 1.10 crore required for the construction of community kitchen and temporary shelter and the amount required for vehicular expenditure prepared by Kolasib DTO has been sent to the Home Department for approval. The first effort to repatriate them from November 16, 2009, was not only scuttled by the murder of one Zarzokima of Bungthuam village three days earlier, but triggered another round of exodus. The effort to repatriate 3,500 Bru families during June to September in 2015 failed as not a single Bru came forward in their respective relief camps before the Mizoram officials, to be identified as bonafide residents of Mizoram. Though a number of Bru families returned to Mizoram during repeated repatriation process and some of them returned on their own, a sizeable number of families remained in the neighbouring State. It is worth mentioning here that the relationship between the Mizos and the Brus has not been going well in the past 15 years. Hundreds of Brus had left Mizoram in 1997 and in 2009. The first case was triggered when Bru militants murdered two Mizos who were forest guards on October 21, 1997. The second case happened after a 17-year-old Mizo boy was killed by the Brus near Bungthuam village on November 13, 2009. When the Bru left Mizoram they had driven out some Mizos in villages of Sakhan Hill Range in Tripura like Sakhan Serhmun, Sakhan Tlangsang, Sakhan Tualsen and Upper Dosda which had kicked up much ruckus in Mizoram then. Meanwhile, four years ago, head count conducted by the MBDPF found that there had been 31,703 Brus in the relief camps belonging to 5,448 families who were bona fide residents of Mizoram. The repatriation of the 1997 batch of Bru refugees was underway until it stalled by the November 13 killing. In the year 2011, conglomeration of major NGOs in Mizoram had submitted a joint memorandum to the then Union Home minister P Chidambaram to rehabilitate displaced Mizos in Tripura and stall the ongoing repatriation of Brus from Tripura to Mizoram. The memorandum was signed by representatives of four large NGOs in the state--the Young Mizo Association (YMA), the MZP, the Mizoram Upa Pawl (MUP) or elders association and the Mizo Hmeichhe Insuihkhawm Pawl (MHIP) or the women's federation and four political parties. The memorandum had mentioned that more than 80 Mizo families displaced from Tripura's Sakhan Hill range in 1998 after being threatened by Bru militants should be adequately rehabilitated by the Centre, otherwise, the repatriation of Brurefugees from Tripura relief camps should not be allowed.
