Repatriation of Bru refugees
- The Centre and the state governments of Tripura and Mizoram has recently signed an agreement for repatriation of Bru community from Tripura to Mizoram. The agreement was signed between Government of India, Governments of Mizoram and Tripura and Mizoram Bru Displaced People’s Forum (MBDPF) in July 2018.
- The central government will provide financial assistance for rehabilitation of Bru community members in Mizoram.
- The Bru militancy was a reactionary movement against Mizo nationalist groups.
- Mizo nationalists had demanded in the mid-1990s that the Brus be left out of the state’s electoral rolls, contending that the tribe was not indigenous to Mizoram.
- In 1997, the murder of a Mizo forest guard at the Dampa Tiger Reserve in Mizoram allegedly by Bru militants led to a violent backlash against the community.
- It forced several thousand people belonging to Bru community to flee to neighbouring Tripura.
- The displaced Bru people from Mizoram have been living in various camps in Tripura since 1997.
