In an attempt to break the Bru repatriation stalemate, the Union Home Ministry has convened a meeting to be held on August 10 and has directed the Mizoram and Tripura State Governments to ensure the attendance of Bru representatives at the meeting.
The order, released by the Union Home Ministry on Monday, has specifically demanded that the two State Governments of Mizoram and Tripura ensure that representatives of the refugees positively attend the proposed meeting.
A forum of displaced Brus has derided the agreement already signed by the Union Home Ministry, Tripura and Mizoram Governments demanding more resettlement packages and certain modifications on the agreed resettlement monetary aid.
In view to the stalemate over the repatriation, the Brus, whom the Mizo civil societies branded them of having fled Mizoram out of their own free will, the Union Home Ministry in its letter to the Mizoram and Tripura State Governments read: “All members of the monitoring committee are requested to attend the meeting. Govt. of Tripura and Mizoram are requested to ensure the attendance of Bru representatives, and representative from Civil Society Organisation in the meeting. Govt. of Tripura is also requested to make arrangements for the above mentioned meeting.”
A forum of Brus settling in Tripura, the Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) — one of the signatories to the Bru agreement of July 3 — has pulled of the pact of repatriation. In early July at the meeting of home minister Rajnath Singh, chief ministers of Tripura and Mizoram and leaders of MBDPF, a consensus was reached on the repatriation of the refugees after nearly 22 years.
The MBDPF demanded that composition and cluster of villages besides facilities for Bru Hindus. They want compensation in savings account instead of fixed deposit aganist what was agreed at a meeting convened by Rajnath Singh.