AGARTALA, March 8 (TIWN): The government of Mizoram is presently working out with repatriation process for some of the Bru refugees living at six camps here in Kanchanpur under North district of Tripura. Recently a meeting was held in regard of sending the refugees to their hometown Mizoram, while the date has not been fixed yet. Talking to TIWN today DM North Dr. Sandeep Rathod said that the repatriation process of the next batch of the reang refugees here at Kanchanpur to begin soon. The actual time and date for repatriation would be decided soon in a state level meeting, said DM. However, it is mentionable here that the Tripura government had already urged the central government to take steps to send over 31,000 tribal refugees back to Mizoram to maintain ethnic harmony in the northeastern region.Talking to TIWN, DM North Dr. Sandeep Rathod said that recently a meeting was held with the leaders of the bru refugees living at Kanchanpur under North District in order to kick start their repatriation process. The repatriation process likely to kick start from the month of June or July, if everything goes on right track, said DM.

DM also added that the date and time would be fixed in the next state level meeting which is going to be held soon.

However but it is mentionable here that during the year 2014, the sixth phase repatriation of standard Reang refugees to Mizoram failed to kick off. Despite persuasion by Tripura government officials the refugees housed in makeshift camps refused to return unless Mizoram government fulfils their demands. And with this the repatriation to Mizoram of about 35,000 tribal refugees sheltered in Tripura for over 17 years still hangs in balance. About 35,000 Reang tribal’s, who call themselves "Bru", have lived in seven camps in Tripura since October 1997 after fleeing western Mizoram after the killing of a Mizo forest officer triggered ethnic troubles.

The Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum had also submitted a six-page memorandum to the central ministers accusing the Mizoram government of discriminating against them. However, the recent meeting held at Delhi on January 30 had almost finalized a roadmap to repatriate the refugees by June 2015. The central government took the initiative to repatriate the refugees in view of the Supreme Court directions Jan 16.

Besides, the issue of the repatriation of the bru refugees was also raised during the recently concluded assembly session here, where the Minister said "It is very unfortunate that the tribal’s despite being Indians nationals and permanent inhabitant of a state are unable to live in their homeland. This is dangerous for the ethnic amity, stability and peace." The minister said, “A serious socio-economic problem has cropped up due to the long stay of the refugees in Tripura. The refugees have damaged vast areas in forests in Kanchanpur causing serious environmental problems."