Veronica Khangchian
Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management
A 20-year insurgency, in what was then the Lushai Hills District of Assam (after 1972, the Union Territory of Mizoram) came to an end on June 30, 1986, with the signing of an accord between the rebel Mizo National Front (MNF) and the Government of India (GoI). The accord resulted in the creation of Mizoram as a State in February 1987. The end of the insurgency, however, only solved the 'Mizo' (Lushai speaking people's) issues, leaving out the State's minority tribes, such as the Hmars and the Brus. Nagging issues continue to feed cycles of low grade strife, and the 'silent' activities of the Hmar under the Hmar People's Convention-Democracy (HPC-D), and the issue of Bru (Reang) refugees, remain unresolved, more than two-and-a-half decades after peace was restored to the State.
On February 9, 2014, the Mizoram Bru Displaced People's Forum (MBDPF) declared that repatriation of refugees from Tripura to Mizoram would not be possible as long as three basic demands were not fulfilled: financial assistance to each family should be enhanced from INR 90,000 to INR 150,000; free ration for two years; and allotment of land under the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act, 2006.
Following the Assembly elections of November 2013, the new Government of Mizoram had initiated steps to resume repatriation of Bru refugees sheltered in six relief camps in North Tripura’s Kanchanpur Subdivision. A. Sawibunga, President of MBDPF, stated, on February 9, 2014, “We heard that the Mizoram Government is on the move to resume repatriation of Reang refugees without considering our basic demands. We are ready to resettle in Mizoram but provided the Government takes steps to address our basic needs or requirement.” Arguing that repatriation of Bru refugees is not the only solution to the problem, A. Sawibunga added that the Government must pay heed to the ‘social demands’ of the Bru people, and that, “Return of displaced Bru people could take place any time after addressing genuine grievances of Bru people.”
Congress leader Lal Thanhawla, at his swearing-in ceremony as the Chief Minister of Mizoram for the second consecutive term, on December 14, 2013, declared that the future of Brus lodged in six relief camps in Tripura would be taken up by his Government, and that the new Government would try its best to end the problem. He, however, asserted that the Government would take steps to delete the names of those who refused to be repatriated.
This declaration came even before the dust had settled, after scores of Brus fled Mizoram following the abduction of three people [two Mizos and Deep Mondal, an official of a Delhi-based telecom company and resident of Kolkata (West Bengal)] by Tripura-based National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) and Bru Democratic Front of Mizoram (BDFM) militants from Damparengpui village near the Dampa Tiger Reserve in Mamit District of Mizoram on November 23, 2013. On December 6, Mizoram Police officials stated that an NLFT cadre, who abducted the trio, had demanded a ransom of INR 50 million for Mondal's release. A senior Police official indicated that the ransom demand was made directly to the telecom company. The abductors had not demanded any ransom for the two abducted Mizos. On January 19, 2014, over 2,423 Bru, including women and children fled from Mizoram, and sheltered in Tripura, after Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP, Mizo Students’ Federation), a powerful students' union, reportedly began a mass voluntary search operation, on January 14, 2014, to find the abducted men. "Over 2,423 men, women and children comprising 368 families late January 19 evening took shelter in four villages in Tripura," a Tripura relief department official disclosed. The Brus from at least three villages - Damdiai, Tumpanglui and New Eden - in Mamit District, fled to Tripura or had taken refuge in nearby villages, fearing a repeat of the 1997-Bru-Mizo ethnic violence. On January 16, 2014, MBDPF President Saibunga alleged that a group of Mizo youth had perpetrated violence against Brus living in the three villages on January 13, and accused the latter of maintaining clandestine relations with banned militant outfits. Saibunga alleged, "They beat up the Brus and set at least 13 house on fire, forcing the Bru families to flee the place and take shelter in camps in Tripura."
On January 21, 2014, the two Mizos were released by their abductors, after spending nearly two months in captivity in the jungles of eastern Bangladesh. Despite subsequent warnings, Mondal is still held captive. On January 23, the Young Mizo Association (YMA) had warned that Mizo people would launch a mass search operation, if Deep Mondal, was not released during January. The MZP also urged the abductors to free Mondal unconditionally and immediately or face the wrath of the Mizo people, declaring, "We will not tolerate the Brus using the Mizos and non-tribal people working in Mizoram for earning money by way of abduction for ransom."
This is the third round of ethnic tension between the Mizos and the Brus, the major one being that of 1997. The second exodus of the Brus to Tripura took place in 2009, during the first stage of repatriation, following the killing of a Mizo youth by suspected Bru militants in November 2009.
The unfinished repatriation of Bru refugees from Tripura, who fled the State after the major ethnic clashes of 1997, continues to be an issue plaguing Mizoram even after 17 years later. In the fifth phase of repatriation (September 30-October 6, 2013), about 100 families from relief camps in the Kanchanpur Subdivision of North Tripura District returned to Mizoram. 891 Bru families had earlier been repatriated to Mizoram in four phases between May 2010 and May 2012, out of an estimated 35,000 Bru refugees in Tripura.
A March 6, 2014, report, however, claimed that the Bru refugee repatriation would be completed before the upcoming Lok Sabha polls in April-May 2014. A meeting between the District Level Core Committee on Bru Repatriation and the Rehabilitation Committee was also held on March 6, 2014, in Mamit District in Mizoram, in this regard. However, given the current situation, this is unlikely to happen. According to a March 15, 2014, report, the MBDPF has also sought arrangements of polling booths in all the Bru relief camps of North Tripura District, so that the Bru refuges can exercise their franchise in the elections scheduled to be held on April 9, 2014, without any trouble, adding that only a few voters were able to cast their votes in the November 2013 Mizoram Assembly elections. The Forum also alleged that the community-based Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) of Mizoram vehemently opposed the setting up of polling booths in relief camps in Tripura, effectively deleting the names of Bru refugees from the existing Electoral Roll. On February 5, 2014, moreover, major civil society organizations in Mizoram had asked the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) V.S. Sampath to delete the names of Bru voters, who were in six Tripura relief camps from the Mizoram voters' lists if they did not return to Mizoram by February, 2014. A March 18, 2014, report further observed that Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, in the preceding week, had submitted a memorandum to the CEC, urging him not to allow Bru refugees living in relief camps in Tripura to exercise their franchise in the April 9 elections to the State's lone Lok Sabha seat. The Chief Minister asserted that if the Bru voters wanted to exercise their franchise, they should cast their votes inside Mizoram, not in the relief camps through postal ballots.
Further, knowing about the difficulties faced by Bru returnees to Mizoram, the displaced Brus are apprehensive about returning to Mizoram unless both the Central and State Government take favorable steps to resolve their demands.
Meanwhile, the stalled talks between the Mizoram Government and the insurgent Hmar People's Convention - Democracy (HPC-D), which resumed in State capital Aizawl on August 14, 2013, ended in a deadlock. HPC-D and the Government of Mizoram had signed a Suspension of Operations (SoO) Agreement at Aizawl, on January 31, 2013, for a period of six months, after several months of tense negotiations. The HPC-D had also received a major setback on June 10, 2012, when SFs arrested two top leaders of the group, ‘army chief’ Lalropuia and ‘deputy army chief’ Biaknunga, at the Kumbigram Airport located in Silchar, Cachar District, Assam. Again, on July 18, 2012, H. Zosangbera, the 'chairman' of HPC-D, was arrested from Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi, by a combined team of the Mizoram and Delhi Police. However, all the three leaders were released on bail and talks were initiated again in 2013.
The unresolved challenges of the State are further compounded by occasional activities of militant groups from neighbouring states engaging in abduction and arms smuggling, using Mizoram as a conduit.
According to the South Asia Terrorism Portal (SATP) database, the State recorded two incidents of abduction in 2013 [the November 23 incident and an earlier February 19 incident; the NLFT and Brus were involved in both the incidents] resulting in eight persons abducted. In 2012 as well, the NLFT had abducted 12 persons in two incidents; six on November 25, including three Tripura residents, two timber merchants and one driver, from Rajibnagar village, in Mamit District; and another six on March 26, all executives of the Assam-based Anupam Bricks and Concrete Industries (ABCI), including residents of Assam, Punjab, and Rajasthan, from the Lunglei District.
Mamit District Superintendant of Police, Rodingliana Chawngthu, on January 25, 2014, disclosed that several steps had been taken to curb the activities of the NLFT and BDFM along the international border with Bangladesh: "The area is heavily forested and falls inside a tiger sanctuary. We have now got the Border Security Force (BSF) carrying out joint patrolling with Forest Department personnel who know all the tracks inside the forest. A permanent Border Out Post will also be set up at the location where Mondal was abducted."
Significantly, the BSF submitted a list of 66 militant camps operating from Bangladesh, to the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), during a three-day bi-annual border coordination meeting [March 7-9, 2014] between the BSF inspector-generals and BGB’s region commanders held in Shillong (Meghalaya). On June 12, 2013, during a meeting with Mizoram Chief Minister, BSF officials had stated that at least 27 camps of different insurgent groups were still located in Bangladesh near the Dampa Tiger Reserve in Mamit District of Mizoram. Significantly, according to an April 29, 2013, report, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (UMHA) has set a 2014 deadline to complete the fencing along the India-Bangladesh border. Mizoram shares unfenced borders with Myanmar (404 kilometres) and Bangladesh (318 kilometres) of which nearly 62 kilometres of the border with Bangladesh in Mamit District is unfenced.
The issue of arms smuggling also remains a concern. SATP recorded five incidents of arms seizure in 2013, as against three incidents [resulting in seven smugglers arrests] in 2012. Eight smugglers were arrested in 2013. The biggest arms seizure in the State [31 AK-47 assault rifles, one Singapore-made Light Machine Gun (LMG), one US-made Browning automatic rifle, 809 rounds of ammunition, and 32 magazines] was on March 7 and 8, 2013, from a farmhouse near the Lengpui Airport, on the outskirts of State capital, Aizawl. The consignment was meant to be delivered to the Parbotia Chatagram Jana Sangata Samiti (PCJSS), a group claiming to fight for the rights of the indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) tribes of Bangladesh.
With a multiplicity of challenges still facing the State, the Mizoram Government, on June 15, 2013, demanded Security-Related Expenditure (SRE) support for the State. On June 5, 2013, Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla, while addressing the Conference of Chief Ministers on Internal Security at New Delhi, argued that various militant groups from neighbouring States in the Northeast, as well as from countries such as Myanmar and Bangladesh, had taken advantage of the porous and inhospitable terrain along Mizoram's interstate and international borders.
Despite an enduring peace after an agonizing twenty years of insurgency, a variety of issues, principally the result of ethnic tensions and overflows of insurgency from the neighbourhood, continue to rankle in Mizoram.
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