GUWAHATI: The Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) has said that all “pending issues,” including identification of about 1000 “additional” Bru families, have to be settled before the final phase of repatriation.
Expressing satisfaction at the Mizoram home department’s plan to initiate the final repatriation process by October this year, the forum pointed out about 1000 families “were still uncertain about their security post repatriation and therefore unwilling to return to Mizoram.”
During the last identification conducted in 2016, Mizoram had identified 32,876 Bru people belonging to 5,407 families as bona fide residents of Mizoram. They are currently lodged at six camps in north Tripura.
In the re-identification process in 2018, only 2,753 people belonging to 423 families expressed their willingness to return to Mizoram.
“Post 1997, owing to marriage and children born thereafter, there have been at least 1000 new families who have to be identified by the Mizoram government and made eligible for repatriation, rehabilitation and relief,” MBDPF general secretary, Bruno Msha told The Shillong Times on Saturday.
Thousands of Bru people had migrated to neighbouring Tripura in 1997 following ethnic clashes in Mizoram.
“Besides, the Bru people want to settle in a contiguous area in Mizoram for their own safety, integrity, unity, preservation of culture, language and identity. As such, we want the rehabilitation centres located in a contiguous area. Currently, they are scattered, with a few of them on the outskirts, which is not suitable,” Msha said.
The forum further pointed out that bank accounts of the camp inmates have to be opened and requisite identification documents such as Aadhar cards, etc generated.
“These are issues which we think the Centre and state government can sort out for the repatriation to begin. We are optimistic that all pending issues would be sorted in the next few months,” he said.
The forum had in November last year submitted a memorandum to the Centre and Mizoram government in regard to the pending issues.
As a partner in a quadrilateral agreement (between the Centre, Tripura and Mizoram) signed in July last year, MBDPF has been pressing for implementation of the Bru repatriation process since inception of the agreement.