The government’s plan to resettle over 32,000 Bru refugees, who had fled to neighbouring Kanchanpur subdivision in Tripura in October 1997 after an ethnic feud between them and the majority Mizos in Mamit district in Mizoram, literally hit a “roadblock” when the Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum threatened to continuously stage blockades on the Mizoram-Tripura boundary to foil the repatriation.
The anti-repatriation leader and president of the Forum, A. Saibunga, demanded that the Mizoram government should come clean on the exact number of Bru refugees who will be taken back from the six camps in Tripura.
He also sought a guarantee for the security of the refugees on their return to their homes in Mizoram, a list of the villages in Mizoram where the Bru people would be rehabilitated and early payment of the cash as part of the rehabilitation package for each repatriated Bru family, as promised by the Centre.
The other problem is the shortage of rice, the staple food of the Mizos, as the Food Corporation of India (FCI) has failed to address the shortfall during the past four months.
Sources in Aizawl said over phone that both the developments were unforeseen.
On the return of the Bru refugees from Tripura, the Bru leaders have found themselves arrayed in two antagonistic camps trading charges against each other.
According to the Mizoram police special branch, a pro-repatriation group, called the Repatriation Implementation Committee, which is led by Elvis Chorky and is part of the Bru Coordination Committee, is opposing Saibunga.
The Congress government in Mizoram has put the repatriation process temporarily on hold fearing backlash from the Brus and the possibility of more blockades on the Mizoram-Tripura boundary to stop the process though two groups of evacuees were successfully brought over to Mizoram in two phases last month. The repatriated Brus, numbering 101, were accommodated in two hamlets of Kolailian and Sikiang in Mizoram’s Mamit district.
Earlier, the Mizoram government, after a series of parleys with the Union home ministry, agreed to pay Rs 80,000 to each returning Bru family as a rehabilitation grant and supply food to all the returnees for one full year.
But the dearth of rice in the FCI depots in the state has raised fears among home department officials that it might not be possible to feed all the repatriated families.
Mizoram’s joint director of food and civil supplies Rokhunga also confirmed the shortage of rice.
Against the monthly requirement of 10,868 tonnes of rice, the state received only 5,221 tonnes from the Centre in September and 7,359 tonnes the next month. As a result, a food crisis has hit the state, particularly in the rural areas, said Rokhunga.