Bru leaders to demand resumption of repatriation campaign as aids stop

A day after all aids for Bru refugees in Tripura camps were discontinued, their leaders on Tuesday said they would soon appeal to the authorities to resume the repatriation that had concluded on September 25. 

After only 40 of the 5,407 Bru refugee families returned to Mizoram during the stipulated one month of repatriation, the authorities discontinued all kinds of subsistence allowances, including ration supplies and cash, dole to them on Monday. 

The Centre had earlier warned that assistance doled out to them would be stopped from October 1 and the camps The Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF), the apex body of the inmates of six Bru relief camps in North Tripura district, held a meeting on the issue on Monday. 

The people were informed that the MBDPF would soon submit a memorandum to the Ministry of Home Affairs and Mizoram and Tripura governments asking for resumption of the repatriation process, MBDPF general secretary Bruno Msha said. 

The Forum also intended to appeal for resuming the doles, including food grain and cash to the inmates, Msha told PTI over phone from Naisingpara relief camp. 

"There were people who were yet to open bank accounts as required according to the July three agreement," he said. An agreement was inked on July 3 between Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, chief ministers of Mizoram and Tripura and MBDPF chief A Sawibunga in Delhi. 

The agreement stipulated that Rs 4 lakh for each repatriated Bru family be deposited to the bank account of the head of the family which would mature after three years and payment of Rs 1.5 lakh would be made for housing assistance. 

Each repatriated Bru family would be given Rs 5,000 through Direct Benefits Transfer every month and free ration for two years. Thousands of Brus had been lodged in the Tripura relief camps since late 1997 in the wake of communal tension triggered by the brutal killing of Lalzawmliana, a forest guard, in the Dampa Tiger Reserve on October 21, 1997, by Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) militants. 

The first attempt to repatriate them in November 2009 not only failed but triggered another exodus after Bru militants gunned down a youth at Bungthuam village, three days before the commencement of the repatriation process. 

Though some Bru families had returned to Mizoram during a number of repatriation processes and on their own will, many of them continued to refuse to leave Tripura despite many attempts by the government.

(With inputs from agencies.)