Yet another initiative to repatriate the Mizoram Bru refugees stranded in the camps in north Tripura on Thursday failed to receive response from the inmates. The authorities could manage to send only 40 families to Mizoram after the refugee leaders refused to return citing mainly security reasons in their home State.
The North Tripura administration has stopped supply of ration in the makeshift camps to comply with the instructions of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The repatriation attempt was the latest of the MHA involving the State governments of Tripura and Mizoram and the Mizoram Bru Displaced Peoples Forum (MBDPF), apex body of the evacuees.
Over 30,000 Bru, also known as Reang, refugees are now housed in six camps in the Kanchanpur subdivision since they fled ethnic violence in Mizoram in September 1997.
The Mizoram government sent nearly 100 buses and trucks to transport them.