Mizoram Bru Refugees Fail to Leave Due to Blockade

Aizawl, Nov 19 : Sixty Bru refugees, who were scheduled to return to Mizoram as part of the second phase of repatriation, could not do so today as anti-repatriation agitators blocked the road they were to take.

Sources from the relief camps in Tripura said over 100 people blocked the road preventing the refugees to leave for Mizoram.

As only a few Tripura policemen were deployed there, they could not disperse the agitators, the sources said.

Anti-repatriation leaders like A Sawibung and Bruno Msha of the Mizoram Bru Displaced People''s Forum (MBDPF) opposed the repatriation demanding a four-cornered negotiation among the MBDPF, the Centre and Mizoram and Tripura governments on a series of their demands.

Pro-repatriation leaders like Elvis Chorkhy of the Bru Coordination Committee (BCC) and Vanlallawma and Lalnunsiama of the Repatriation Implementation Committee (RIC) have expressed support to government plans to repatriate the refugees lodged in six relief camps in Kanchanpur.

Earlier the officials from Mizoram had completed identification of bonafide residents of Mizoram in three relief camps - Khakchangpara, Hampsapara and Kaskau - to be repatriated in the second phase of repatriation, but could not continue the identification process in other three camps due to road blockade by anti-repatriation elements.

During the first phase of repatriation on November three and four, 53 families have returned and resettled in Mizoram-Tripura border Mamit district.