GUWAHATI: The displaced Brus (Reangs), lodged in relief camps in Tripura, will soon meet and take a call on whether they should return to their villages in Mizoram or not.
As the Centre is keen on completing the ninth and final round of repatriation by October this year, the Mizoram government will on Wednesday begin the process for re-identification of the refugees. Over 32,000 Brus have been lodged in six relief camps of Tripura for nearly two decades.
Laldingliana, who is a leader of the displaced Brus, said the refugees were still undecided on their return to Mizoram.
“We will convene a public meeting within a week. Bru leaders and intellectuals will attend it. The public will decide whether they should go back to Mizoram or keep staying in the relief camps in Tripura,” he said.
At a meeting held in New Delhi on June 28, the Joint Monitoring Group on Bru Repatriation discussed the issue of repatriation. The meeting was attended by senior officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Mizoram and Tripura governments besides leaders of Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum.
Laldingliana said their organisation, Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Coordination Committee, had not yet been intimated by the Central government on the proposed final repatriation.
The refugees, who will go back to Mizoram, will be provided with free ration and Rs 5000 a month per family for two years.
Earlier, the refugees had said they would accept repatriation only if their demands were fulfilled by the government. The demands include the creation of an area development council for the Brus in Mizoram, allocation of five hectares of land to each refugee family, their settlement in cluster villages with each housing at least 500 families, Rs.4 lakh compensation to each family before repatriation, revision of electoral rolls, identification of 1,000 left out families and general amnesty to the refugees.
Over 40,000 Brus had fled Mizoram during their ethnic riots with Mizos in 1997. Over the past few years, a few thousand of them returned to Mizoram.