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Fate of 35,000 Reang tribals in balance

The repatriation of 35,000 Mizoram Reang tribal refugees, sheltered in north Tripura for the past seven months hangs in balance despite the Tripura government mounting pressure on the Centre to settle the ethnic problem.

Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar, who expressed concern over the uncertainty of the return of these refugees to Mizoram, urged the Centre to initiate immediate steps to solve the problem.

Sarkar, who had written separate letters to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Union Home Minister L K Advani in this regard, said the problem was yet to be settled despite several discussions with Mizoram Chief Minister Lalthanhawla in New Delhi last month. Sarkar sought the Centre's immediate intervention to send back the refugees.

A high-level delegation of Reang leaders recently called on President K R Narayanan, Advani and National Human Rights Commission chairman Justice M N Venkatachalaiah and demanded compensation of Rs 500,000 for each affected Reang family. Their other demands are inclusion of names of 20,000 Reang tribals, who, according to them had been excluded from the voters's list.

The Reang leaders in their memorandum to the Centre urged the prime minister to constitute an autonomous district council under the sixth schedule of the Constitution to save and protect the cultural identity of the 85,000 Reang tribals and ensure proper educational and economic progress. Such autonomous district councils had already been constituted in Mizoram for the Chakmas, Lakher and Maar tribes under the sixth schedule of the Constitution.

The Reangs, a primitive tribe of the north eastern region, are mostly Hindu. They live in the western part of Aizawl district in 75 villages and in a few hamlets of Lunglei and Chimtuipui districts adjoining Tripura.

Less than one per cent of them were literate though Mizoram is the second most literate state in the country after Kerala. The community produced only four graduates, two of whom were employed. Their main source of livelihood was jhum (shifting cultivation) and 80 per cent of them were daily labourers.

An official of the Tripura government said earlier, two previous attempts to repatriate the Reang refugees in November and January had failed because representatives of the Reangs said they felt insecure.

These refugees crossed over to Kanchanpur and Dharmangar sub-division in north Tripura district in October and November following sudden spate in violence in their villages in Mizoram.

Even though a meeting was held in New Delhi, where it was decided to send a high-level delegation of the Reang refugees to the Mizoram chief minister and to visit the Reang-dominated villages in Mizoram, it did not yield any results. The special secretary of the Union home ministry and chief secretaries of both the states were present at the meeting, held on March 16.

The official said the Reang refugees felt the atmosphere in their villages was still not conducive to their safe return. A fresh attack might recur after their return to the villages, the refugees said.

Meanwhile, the Borok People Human Rights Organisation, a tribal-based organisation, recently alleged that at least 17 people, mostly children and aged persons, had died of starvation and various other reasons, including unhygienic conditions. There was scarcity of food and other essentials in the refugee camps, they alleged.

UNI

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