Bru Women Hold Mass Protest Against Repatriation to Mizoram

Special Correspondent

Silchar: The process of repatriation of more than 30,000 Bru or Reang refugees to Mizoram from their camps at Kanchanpur in North Tripura is once again caught in the logjam despite the best efforts of the Union Home Ministry and the Tripura government. The stumbling block is the Mizoram government for its ambiguous stand on a humanitarian issue which calls for a sympathetic and magnanimous approach. The Bru refugees languishing in six camps since 1997 are apprehensive about their fate once they return to their native land. Those who have returned are now repentant, alleged Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF).

Vehicles are being sent by the Mizoram government to take back the refugees but they refuse to board unless their demands are conceded to. President of MBDPF A Sawibunga said, “We are greatly disturbed and our women folk of the relief camps have been agitated. They held mass protest demonstrations before the camps separately to record their deep resentment against the half-hearted attitude of the State of Mizoram.”

Sawibunga said that in order to put the Brus in the dock, Mizoram is sending vehicles to their camps unnecessarily. The representatives of the various NGOs which include Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum, Mizoram Bru Indigenous Democratic Movements, Bru Tribal Democratic Society, Displaced Women Welfare Committee and Camp Defence Committee assembled at the multipurpose community hall of Naisingpara to discuss the ongoing repatriation process on Tuesday under his chairmanship.

A slew of resolutions were taken. Strong exception was taken to send vehicles arbitrarily to the camps for repatriation despite their intimation to the Home Minister of Mizoram, calling it a vain exercise, in a memorandum sent through the District Magistrate of North Tripura on September 30. Government of Mizoram has not been following its own action plan as laid down in the roadmap. Genuine grievances of the Brus are ignored.

Quite serious, Mizoram govenment, as one resolution says, is sending its intelligence men to camps, visiting door to door and intimidating the inmates, saying this is the last call for them. Some representatives of Coordination Committee of NGOs of Brus of Mizoram met the Union Home Minister Amit Shah on October 5, urging upon him to examine the pros and cons of the repatriation process. He was posted with the information that the officials of Mizoram Government who have now come in the forefront were the ones who had been against the repatriation, objecting to enrolment of their names in the electoral rolls.

Bru NGOs are also apprehensive about the proper handling of rehabilitation package by the Mizoram government representatives. Brus settled in Mizoram are not receiving fair deal, they further alleged. The NGOs have demanded a high level probe into the death of a Bru woman, Linda alias Kahgrakti (28), allegedly caused by her Mizo husband of Thangkhang village. The memorandum was signed among others by President of Mizoram Bru Indigenous Democratic Movements G B Herbert Reang besides A Sawibunga.

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