Aizawl (Mizoram): It’s a tragic story. The Bru tribes were forced to flee their homes and become refugees in Tripura. Even after decades, they are still afraid to go back to live with the Mizos. They want their own enclave, a Bru Reservation!

Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF), the apex body of Bru refugees in Tripura, today said the community’s members lodged in relief camps would never return to Mizoram unless their nine-point demands are conceded by that state’s government and the Centre.

A press statement issued by the MBDPF said it had conducted consultations in seven relief camps in North Tripura district on February 14 and 15 where participants had expressed their desire not to be repatriated unless their demands were met.

The statement signed by MBDPF president A Sawibunga and general secretary Bruno Msha said the resolutions adopted at the meetings had been sent to Mahesh Kumar Singla, the special secretary (Internal Security) to the ministry of home affairs.

The demands included allotment of five hectares to each repatriated Bru family for agriculture purposes, grouping of 500 families in a model village, right to choose the village where they want to settle and enhancement of the rehabilitation package.

Supreme Court after accepting MBDPF petition had stayed the proposed repatriation of 32,800 Brus belonging to 5,413 families, scheduled to commence from mid-February.

  Bru, Mizoram, Northeast, Tripura