Bru repatriation: 25 more return to Mizoram; protests continue

A total of 25 people of six displaced Brus families from two relief camps of Tripura were repatriated to their homeland Mizoram on Wednesday, while protests over the killing of a woman continued in four other camps and officials failed to enter there.

With this 25, altogether 59 Bru families have returned to Mizoram since the ninth round of repatriation which is termed as the "final" one, began on October 3. It will continue till November 30.

A total of 4,447 Bru families, lodged in six relief camps in North Tripura district, are scheduled to return to the neighbouring state from where they had fled since 1997 following ethnic clashes.

"Fourteen members of four families from Khakchan camp and 11 of two families from Kaskau camp have been repatriated to Mizoram. Mizoram officials received them in presence of Tripura government officers," Sub-divisional Magistrate (SDM) of Panisagar N Darlong told PTI.

She said there was an agitation in Kaskau and Khakchan camps on Monday by the inmates over the killing of a Bru woman allegedly by her husband in Mamit district of Mizoram, bordering Tripura, but there was no protest from Tuesday.

However, protests continued in four other relief camps in Kanchanpur sub-division.

Kanchanpur SDM, Abhedananda Biadya, said no Bru people could be repatriated since Monday as the agitators did not allow Mizoram government officials to enter the camps.

Though Tripura officials said 59 Bru families have left their camps to their homeland, their Mizoram counterparts could provide details of 55 families till this evening.

"Of the 55 families, 42 were taken to south Mizoram's Lunglei district, 11 to Mamit district and two families to Kolasib district," a Mizoram official said.

He said hundreds of women organised rallies on Wednesday and obstructed officials and vehicles sent to transport the Bru people from Naisingpara camp to protest against the killing of the 33-year-old Linda Bru.

Mizoram Police on Wednesday said Linda's death on October 5 was due to severe burn injuries and it was most likely to be a case of domestic violence or accident.

One person was arrested in connection with the incident, IGP (Headquarters) John Neihlaia said in a release.

Bru Women Welfare Organisation, an apex body of women in the six relief camps in Tripura, demanded payment of Rs 20 lakh as ex-gratia to the family of Linda.

Six organisations of the Brus living in relief camps on Tuesday criticised the Mizoram government for carrying out the repatriation without accepting their demands.

Earlier on October 4, posters opposing the repatriation and demand for a separate autonomous district council for the Bru community were found in the relief camps. However, no untoward incident was reported then.

Mizoram Bru Indigenous Democratic Movement leader Phillip Apeto had said they were not satisfied with the rehabilitation package and a district council for the Brus under the sixth schedule of the constitution must be created.

A memorandum submitted by three Bru organisations to Mizoram Home Minister Lalchamliana last week expressed apprehension that the Bru community would lose their identity if they return to Mizoram in the present situation.

The Ministry of Home Affairs had warned last year that the relief camps would be closed down from October one and free ration and money doled to the displaced families would be discontinued after the eighth phase of repatriation which did not bear much fruit.

While the MHA did stop the free ration and cash dole from October one, 2018, the Centre restarted it apparently due to political reasons as Mizoram assembly election was nearing.

The Centre has approved Rs 350 crore for the ninth phase of repatriation and the amount covers transportation and rehabilitation package expenses, which include Rs 5,000 per month for each resettled Bru family in Mizoram and free ration for them for two years.

Eight attempts had been made to repatriate the Brus, also called Reangs, and only around 1,681 families have returned to Mizoram since 2010 and were resettled in Mamit, Kolasib and Lunglei districts.

The vexed Bru problem started when the Bru people, spearheaded by an organisation, Bru National Union, demanded a separate autonomous district council by carving out areas of western Mizoram adjoining Bangladesh and Tripura in September, 1997.

The situation was aggravated by the murder of a forest guard in the Dampa Tiger Reserve in western Mizoram by Bru National Liberation Front insurgents on October 21, 1997.

The first attempt to repatriate the Brus from Tripura from November 16, 2009 not only fizzled out due to the murder of a Mizo youth at Bungthuam village on November 13, 2009, but also triggered another wave of exodus.