GUWAHATI: Some 32,000 displaced Brus (Reangs), who are lodged in relief camps in Tripura and to be repatriated to Mizoram by September 30, will launch an agitation from Friday in support of their charter of demands.
A decision towards this effect was taken by a newly-constituted committee of the refugees. It was formed following the dissolution of Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) which had signed an agreement with Central, Mizoram and Tripura governments last month for the refugees’ repatriation.
The seven-member new committee was formed with SH Laldingliana Reang as its president. Ranakishore Reang, a Tripura-based Bru leader, told TNIE the Brus would launch the agitation demanding an autonomous area council for them in Mizoram, distribution of voter identity cards to them before their repatriation, payment of one-time ex-gratia and their rehabilitation in Mizoram’s Mamit district.
“The demand over voter ID cards stems from their fear of being deprived of franchise in Mizoram. They want that they are repatriated to Kartta and Hachik areas of Mamit district. The Brus have a sizeable population at the two places and the refugees say they will feel secure if repatriated there. Bru refugees, who went back to their villages earlier, have been subjected to harassment and mental torture. That’s why they want to live together at one place. Also, they feel if they can live together, they will be able to exercise their franchise without any fear,” Ranakishore said.
He said the three lakh Brus living in Tripura would give their moral support to the proposed agitation. He said the MBDPF was dissolved as its leaders were allegedly concerned over their own interests. In the wake of protests by the refugees days after signing of the agreement, the MBDPF had pulled out of the pact saying it least fulfilled the aspirations of the Brus. Three years of hard bargaining with all stakeholders went into the pact’s signing.
After signing the agreement, the Centre had said that each Bru refugee family would be given one-time financial assistance of Rs.4 lakh to be kept in fixed deposit within one month of repatriation. The refugees were to be rehabilitated in villages which they had fled during ethnic riots between Brus and Mizos in 1997. Over 40,000 Brus had fled to Tripura and over the past few years, several thousand of them returned to Mizoram on their own.