Silchar, June 6: Bru refugees displaced from Mizoram after ethnic riots and settled in relief camps in North Tripura since November 1997, have demanded the Centre?s intervention to resolve their repatriation problem.
Bruno Msha, president of the Mizoram Bru Refugee Committee, said here recently that it was high time the Centre intervened to resolve the impasse. He said more than 3,600 refugees have died of various diseases in the camps in the past six years.
He regretted that since the last round of talks between the Bru refugee leaders and the Mizoram government in 2001, no major initiative was taken to solve the problem. At least eight delegations of the refugee committee had met leaders of various political parties in New Delhi with an appeal to speed up the repatriation process but to no avail, he added.
Msha said the matter has become even more complicated with Zoramthanga?s Mizo National Front government insisting that the Bru militant outfit, the Bru National Liberation Front, should first lay down arms as a precondition to holding talks on repatriation.
He said the Mizoram government was also asking for ration cards, house tax receipts and electoral roll certificates as proof that they are genuine inhabitants of that state.