Tripura: Indigenous Organisations Demand Government Aid for Bru Refugees

Agartala, November 4, 2019:

Four indigenous organisations of Tripura, namely the Jamatia Hoda, Tripura Juglai Butho, Bru-socio cultural organization and Tripura Khatriya Samaj, have appealed to the state government to consider the plight of the Bru refugees and aid them with necessary help.

The four socio-cultural organisations extended their full support to the refugees who have been staging a road blockade since October 31 in Tripura’s Kanchanpur area in demand of resuming food supply to the seven relief camps, by the government.

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The Chairman of the Joint Committee of the four indigenous organisations, Dilip Debbarma, said that the Bru refugees are frightened by the proposal of their repatriation to Mizoram. He cited ‘religious influence’ as one of the main reasons of their concern.

He added that the Bru refugees were offered resettlement in a way that they can be divided easily in small blocks. He alleged that it was an attempt to break the unity of the refugees.

He went to claim that the repatriation move was a well-concerted plan to break the religious unity of as most of the were Hindus and Mizoram has a majority of Christianity.

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The Chairman, while showing full support to the refugees, said that Bru refugees were stripped off their basic human rights.

It may be stated here that the Bru refugees had fled Mizoram following ethnic clashes. They had been protesting in demand of food since the past five days following four starvation deaths in Kanchanpur relief camps in Tripura.

However, Kanchanpur’s sub-divisional magistrate (SDM) Abhedananda Baidya has contended that the cause of their deaths is yet to be established, and starvation might not be the reason.

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