Send back Mizoram refugees, Tripura asks central government
By IANSWednesday, June 9, 2010
AGARTALA - Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar Wednesday said he has again asked the central government to take steps to repatriate 37,000 tribal refugees to Mizoram.
For the past 13 years, Reang tribal refugees have taken shelter in six camps in north Tripura, adjacent to Mizoram. They fled western Mizoram after ethnic clashes with the majority Mizos over the killing of a Mizo forest official.
Sarkar met union Home Minister P. Chidambaram in New Delhi Saturday and discussed various security-related issues, including Mizoram’s tribal refugee-related issues.
“Due to the long stay of the tribal refugees since October 1997, Tripura is facing serious socio-economic, administrative and security-related problems,” Sarkar told reporters here Wednesday.
“Education, health and other future aspects of refugees and their children, specially the new borns, hangs in the balance. They should lead a normal life in their own villages,” Sarkar told Chidambaram.
Chidambaram had during his visit to Aizawl last month asked the Mizoram government and the tribal leaders to help repatriate all 37,000 Reang tribal refugees to their ancestral villages.
After the union home minister’s trip, about 235 families comprising 1,200 men, women and children were repatriated in three batches last month (May 21 to 26) to Mamit district of western Mizoram.
“There is no information with the Tripura government about when the remaining refugees would be repatriated,” Sarkar told journalists.
