Mizo govt to talk to Brus

Mizoram government officials would soon hold talks with various Bru organisations in six relief camps in North Tripura district before the resumption of repatriation process scheduled to begin from June first week.
State Additional Secretary for Home Lalbiakzama told PTI today that the officials would go to Kanchanpur to meet leaders of the Bru bodies and discuss the forthcoming repatriation process.
He said that inspection of the Langkaih bridge on the Mizoram-Tripura border would also be conducted to verify whether reported damages of the bridge would hamper the mass entry of Bru families from the relief camps to Mizoram.
The state government, after submitting the Road Map-4 on Bru repatriation asked for Rs 68 crore financial assistance from the Ministry of Home Affairs as expenses of which Rs 4.7 crore has been received, he said.

As the repatriation this time around would be the final stage, efforts would be made to ensure that all the inmates of the relief camps return to Mizoram, he said, adding that the Bru families lodged in the Kaskau relief camp, the nearest camp from Mizoram would be asked to move first.
Bru exodus occurred during the latter part of 1997 after Lalzawmliana, a game watcher of the state environment and forests department was gunned down by Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) militants near Persang hamlet inside the Mizoram-Tripura-Bangladesh border Dampa Tiger Reserve on October 21, 1997.
Though no member of the Bru community was hurt, police reported a number of arson cases in the abandoned Bru villages along the Mizoram-Tripura border areas after the incident.

The first attempt to repatriate the refugees from November 16, 2009 was not only impeded by the murder of Zarzokima, a young boy of Bungthuam village by Bru militants, but also triggered another exodus due to heightened communal tension.