With only two days left for the "final" round of repatriation of Bru refugees from Tripura to Mizoram, the exercise has run into rough weather as the community leaders decided not to return to their home state till their demands were met.
Urging the authorities not to send officials for a futile exercise, leaders of the displaced people claimed in a memorandum to Mizoram Home Minister Lalchamliana that they are afraid of losing their Bru ideinty if they return to Mizoram.
In the ninth round of repatriation which is termed as the "final" one, altogether 4,447 Bru families, lodged in six relief camps in Tripura, are scheduled to return to the neighbouring state from where they had fled since 1997 following ethnic clashes. The exercise is scheduled to commence from October 3.
"The people of the relief camps have decided not to go back to Mizoram till our demands are addressed in the right perspective," three Bru organisations said in a joint memorandum to Lalchamliana through the district magistrate of North Tripura where their relief camps are located.
The memorandum, signed on September 30 by leaders of the Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF), Bru Tribal Development Society and the Mizoram Bru Indigenous Democratic Movement, reached Lalchamliana on Tuesday, officials said. "You are humbly informed that no official be sent to the relief camps along with vehicles... Your toil will be in vain as the upcoming 9th phase of the repatriation seems to be unsuccessful," the memorandum said.
Among others, the MBDPF has on September 19 demanded that post-repatriation, the refugees be resettled in one village in south Mizoram's Lunglei district and six villages in Mamit, in lieu of the proposed 14 villages.