Silchar, Jan. 14: The militant Bru National Liberation Front (BNLF) has indicated it is no longer averse to accepting the Mizoram government?s condition that all members of the outfit must lay down weapons before a peace accord is signed. If the BNLF says yes, it will be the second such concession by the Bru group in the past two years.
The militants first gave up the demand for an autonomous district council to administer the Bru-dominated areas of northwest Mizoram. They instead settled for a development council based on the model of limited autonomy, which was granted to the Hmar tribe in 1994.
A senior official in the Mizoram home department confirmed from Aizawl today that the 10th round of peace talks between BNLF leaders and chief secretary H.V. Lalringa would get under way in the state capital either in the last week of this month or early February.
The administration has agreed to grant the visiting BNLF delegation safe passage to and from Aizawl.
The official said the Zoramthanga government was keen to end the impasse over the repatriation of Bru refugees, sheltered in six camps in Kanchanpur subdivision of North Tripura district, as part of the peace package.
However, the Mizoram government has made it clear that only those Bru refugees who proved their credentials as indigenous residents of the state to a team of Mizoram officials that visited north Tripura last year would be allowed to enter the state.
A leader of the Mizoram Displaced Bru Refugees? Committee said doubts over the authenticity of the exercise might fester during the peace talks. Of the 36,000 refugees now sheltered in Tripura camps, only 4,166 were accepted as ?genuine indigenous residents? of Mizoram by an official delegation from Aizawl.
In accordance with a directive from the Election Commission, the Mizoram government had set up 17 booths at Kanhmun and Tuipuibari, on the border with Tripura, to enable the 4,166 listed Bru refugees to cast their votes during the recent Assembly poll.
The Brus, also known as Reangs, fled Mizoram in 1996 in the wake of a conflict with the Mizo tribe.
The Brus were allowed to vote in Mizoram during the 1999 Lok Sabha elections at the intervention of the National Human Rights Commission. A polling booth was set up for them at Kanhmun.