By IANS
Agartala : Thousands of tribal Reang refugees from Mizoram, currently sheltered in camps in Tripura, have threatened to move the Supreme Court seeking repatriation of more than 33,000 people back to their home state.
The Reang refugees, also known as Bru, have been sheltered in six north Tripura camps since October 1997 following ethnic clashes with the majority Mizos in Mizoram.
Mizoram is reluctant to take back the refugees, prompting them to seek the apex court’s help.
“We had held several demonstrations and hunger strikes to force the Mizoram government to take back the refugees and solve this decade old problem. But with no solution in sight, we have decided to approach the Supreme Court for justice,” said Elvis Chorkhy, president of the Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF).
The hunger strike they organised earlier this year was withdrawn following assurances by the home ministry to fulfil their 16-point charter of demands, including repatriation of refugees to their home state.
“But unfortunately nothing was done to settle our problems. The inmates are asking how long they would remain refugees in their own country,” Chorkhy said.
A home ministry team visited the refugee camps in March.
After 14 rounds of talks, the Mizoram government and the militant Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) had signed an agreement in April 2005 to solve the decade-old ethnic crisis, leading to the surrender before the state government of about 1,040 militants belonging to the BNLF and Bru Liberation front of Mizoram (BLFM).
Both the rebel outfits had been fighting for setting up of an autonomous council for the Reang refugees besides other demands.
Demanding immediate four corner talks between the centre, Mizoram and Tripura governments and MBDPF, the memorandum said, “these series of events — signing of agreement to surrender of militants — had proved to be useless for the durable solution of the problems of both refugees and Reang tribals in Mizoram”.
“The Mizoram government had earlier insisted that the repatriation of Reang tribal refugees would not begin until Bru militancy was wiped out completely,” Chorkhy said, adding that the state government was yet to fulfil the assurances given to the Bru militants. The refugee problem had led to socio-economic unrest in Tripura.
“Due to the long stay of the tribal refugees since October 1997, Tripura is facing serious socio-economic problems,” Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said.
The central government has so far spent over Rs.1 billion for their upkeep.
“We need to be sure if all the refugees are genuine residents of Mizoram,” state Home Secretary Ropianga told IANS over phone from Aizawl.