400 houses torched as ethnic tension brews up between Mizo & Brus

by Mritunjay | November 16, 2009 at 01:11 pm

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Ethnic tension has spiraled up in India’s North-Eastern state of Mizoram after a Mizo youth named Zarzokima, aged 18, was murdered by the by militants belonging to the Bru National Army. Since then suspected Mizo groups have burnt down nearly 400 houses belonging to Bru people. Thatch and bamboo is used as the primary roofing material for houses in these tribal areas.

Seven people have been arrested till now on the charges of arson over the past three days.

The Mizoram government on Monday issued a shoot-on-sight order at Bungthuam and neighbouring villages in the state's western parts, which have been on the boil following last week's murder of a Mizo youth allegedly by suspected Bru militants.

"The shoot-on-sight order has been issued to contain the ethnic strife at Bru-dominated villages in the Bungthuam area near the state's border with Tripura," Mizoram home minister R Lalzirliana said here.

Fearing backlash, as many as 300 Bru families in these areas have already crossed over to neighboring Tripura since the time the first arson was reported.

Chief Minister of Mizoram, Lal Thanhawla convened a Cabinet meeting on Sunday to discuss the situation and has asked the administration to start relief measures at the earliest.

"The ongoing arson is un-Christian and un-Mizo. We must keep our calm and maintain peace in this hour of crisis. If we condemn the murder (of Zarzokima), then a retaliation of this sort is not acceptable," Lalzirliana (Mizoram Home Minister) said.

The history of clashes between Bru tribes and Mizos is not new. In fact after a major strife in 1997-98, the Brus had created the militant front called Bru Liberation Front of Mizoram (BLFM). The bloody strife was expected to end when 802 militants of BLFM had surrendered in October 2006. The mass surrender followed an agreement reached between the Indian government and the Bru rebels in 2005 after the central government announced a financial package of Rs. 286.5 million for the repatriation of the tribal refugees from Tripura to Mizoram.

The state government has been in the process of making elaborate plans to repatriate over 35,000 Bru refugees since then who had escaped to Tripura after the strife first broke out in 1997. Meanwhile political leaders from the Reang community are busy fishing in the troubled waters.

The tripartite meeting held in Aizawl Nov 4 between representatives of the central and Mizoram governments and tribal refugees failed to resolve the 12-year deadlock to repatriate 35,000 Reang migrants from Tripura to Mizoram.

“Both the centre and the Mizoram government rejected our major demands. We will not return to our homes unless our vital demands are fulfilled,” said Elvis Chorkhy, who led the seven-member refugee delegation at the meeting.

“We will boycott the repatriation process as both the Mizoram government and the centre are not sincere about conceding our long pending demands.”

Nearly 30 militant groups operate in North East India and these struggles have left more than 50, 000 dead in six of the seven North East states since 1947 when India got her independence. The demand of such groups ranges from creation of autonomous regions to right of self-determination.

Central paramilitary Assam Rifles troops as well as sections of the Tripura and Mizoram armed police have been deployed in the area to ward-off any fresh hostility between Mizos and Reang tribals.

"The (Mizoram)government has sent heavy police reinforcements and started relief operations in the vulnerable areas," said Lalrinmawia Ralte, parliamentary secretary of the home department.

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Hugh Askew

at 16:00 on November 16th, 2009

Shoot on sight? Pretty serious business.

Do the Bru tribes and Mizos live in the same towns/villages, or do they keep apart from each other?

Mritunjay

at 16:29 on November 16th, 2009

They used to stay in pretty much same villages but after the 1997 riots around 35,000 people left their homes and have been in refugee camps in adjoining Tripura where Bru's are a large part of the population.

As of now the Bru's who are left back are mostly in villages dominated by them. Most of these villages are in areas bordering Tripura.

Mizos are typically seen as a closed social group and the demands like autonomous region by Bru's actually seems to be the bone of contention for the strife.

Hugh Askew

at 16:41 on November 16th, 2009

So, who has the attitude? Did the Mizos originate the violence? Or the Bru? I mean when it all first started.

Mritunjay

at 17:38 on November 16th, 2009

Its the classical Chicken-Egg story Hugh. Both accuse each other of instigating the issue.

Though if you look at it from a 30,000-ft view it seems the issue of demanding an autonomous region within the state was the fuel and the 1997 killing of the Mizo forest guard by Brus acted as trigger that saw exodus of 30,000 people.

This time again when govt. is trying to get the IDPs back the killing of the Mizo youth by Bru-separatists sparked the violence.

There are still two issues that remain unresolved:

Lack of agreement on actual number of refugees (Different grps have nos. between 15,000 to 35,000)
Both parties still sticking to stand on autonomous region

Hugh Askew

at 18:17 on November 16th, 2009

So they both want to be separated from the other.

Then, if they get mad at each other, they have to cross the border into the others autonomous region.

Would there be government troops at these borders - to keep them in, and others out, or will the borders become the new flash points?

Sounds like Northern Ireland, or the Palestinian region - one big mess.

Mritunjay

at 19:41 on November 16th, 2009

Its a bit more complex and arguably a bit more simple:

In India we typically don't grant such autonomous regions else there would be thousands of such regions. Mizos are about 80% of the population of the state while all other communities form the rest of the population. Now the districts being demanded as autonomous region itself would be a small state-within-a-state sort of arrangement which would make the region more vulnerable both economically and to foreign incursions. The area borders Bangladesh which makes it very important to national security.

Carving a separate region would open discussions and set precedents for many other demands and presumably step up the action of other separatist groups too.

The camps have been typically guarded by police forces which in fact has helped protect some villages in recent spate of violence but now additional paramilitary forces ahve been rushed. So hopefully the violence would not spread.

Hugh Askew

at 19:51 on November 17th, 2009

Okay, my knowledge of India is not real great. How far off am i on populations?

Mizos 500 or 600 thousand? Brus 120,000? Lot of people we are talking about. How many square Miles/Kilometers. I'm assuming this is fairly densly populated?

Sorry about all the dumb questions, i'm trying to get educated here.