Agartala: As many as 494 families of Bru refugees staying in relief camps of North Tripura district were identified for the sixth phase of repatriation to their homeland- Mizoram.
Sources in the district administration said the identification process for repatriation was conducted earlier this month.
The Mizoram government is working on figuring out ways of repatriating the Reang refugees back home. Funds required for repatriation of the Bru relief camp inmates were released from the Bru Repatriation Cell at the Mamit Deputy Commissioner’s office and the process for repatriating these families was accordingly started.
Over 37 thousand people from the Reang community were displaced in violent clashes between the ethnic Reang and Mizo communities of Mizoram in 1997-1998. The clashes occurred mainly in Mamit, Lunglei and Kolasib districts, triggered by a supposed murder of a Mizo forest department official at the Dampa Tiger Reserve. The last phase of massive exodus of ethnic Brus from Mizoram occurred in 2009.
Repatriations of the Brus were held in five different phases till date. A head count recently revealed that 31,703 Brus from 5,448 families were living in the relief camps in North Tripura district.
Each displaced Bru family in Mizoram is assured a one-time rehabilitation of Rs. 80,000 for house construction, Rs. 5,500 for conveyance and Rs. 2,000 for makeshift. They would also be provided rice free of cost for one year.
A total of 84 families from the relief camps went back home in 2013, 669 displaced families returned to Mizoram in 2012. The repatriation suffered a massive setback in 2009 after a Mizo youth – Zarzokima was found dead on River Longai along the Tripura-Mizoram border.
A Home Department official of Mizoram said later today that all arrangements including ration and housing aid was in place to aid the families scheduled to be repatriated for the next 1 year.
The Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples Forum (MBDPF), however, denied to agree to the repatriation and demanded a minimum of two years’ of free ration and a higher one time compensation.
The MBDPF handed over a 18 point memorandum to former Home Ministers P Chidambaram and Sushil Kumar Shinde during their previous visits in the state.