Naisingpara, rising from the ash.
By:A Debbarma, Category: General, Posted on:2011-03-23 07:49:34

23 March 2011, Agartala/Naishingpara: It was in the month of October 1997 the Reangs from the state of Mizoram fled from their homeland and settled in Tripura after the ethnic conflict with the majority Mizos of the Mizoram. They were then given a tag of "refugee" by the Tripura government and media and have been called so till date. Perhaps refugee might not be a good term to refer them.

According to the Refugee Convention (1951 United Nations Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees ), refugee is defined as:

"owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country or return there because there is a fear of persecution..."

Perhaps we may use the term of "Internally Displaced Person" (IDP) for the Reangs/Bru, which is defined in a United Nations report, Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement as:

"internally displaced persons are persons or groups of persons who have been forced or obliged to flee or to leave their homes or places of habitual residence, in particular as a result of or in order to avoid the effects of armed conflict, situations of generalized violence, violations of human rights or natural or human-made disasters, and who have not crossed an internationally recognized State border."

Tripura having international border with only Bangladesh, logically can have only Bangladeshi Refugee. ‎"Tripura sheltered over 1.5 million(15 lakhs) Bangladesh refugees, a number that exceeded its own population. "- The Hindu, November 17, 2010.

It was the black night of 15 October 1997 when the Reangs fled from their homeland, Mizoram, to save their life as a result of ethnic riots with whatever they could carry with them and settled at the bordering areas across Mizoram in Tripura in the North Tripura district of Kanchanpur Subdivision thereby becoming refugee in their own country a case unique in its nature.

Gradually they were settled in Five (5) such camps of which the camp at Naisinghpara is the largest where more than 19,743 people of 3014 families lived.
It was a usual 12:30 pm, windy Saturday afternoon where the men and women were busy with their day-to-day activities and the children were busy playing around whose sounds were echoed in the hilly areas of Naisingpara, not knowing what is to unfold in a couple of hours from now.

An aggressive fire is seen suddenly in one of the houses catching up the near ones at a speed which the people failed to control. A chaotic scene is seen everywhere, where the unprepared Reangs could not tackle the angry fire that gutted more than 2500 houses in few hours. The remote locations of the area an the underdeveloped roads owe to the delay of the Fire Service Vehicle to reach the spot at the time of need. By the time the Fireman reach the spot it was all over.

16 deaths reported on the spot with two more at the hospital taking the tally to 18 including 6 women, 6 children and 6 men, which is to rise in coming days as more critical patients are battling for life in the hospital.
Already homeless Reang/Bru, struggling for their home and identity and uncertainty about their future, a dark future is in store ahead. More than 20000 people affected by the tragedy.

But no one is sure as how the fire got started; several theories have come up after the incidents. Some suggest it to be a fire from the kitchen from one family, where some says that it was initiated when two children were playing, but there are some theories which suggest it to be a handy work of some miscreants and a political conspiracy to drive them off Tripura. Bruno Mse the General Secretary of Bru Displaced Peoples Forum said, "we are investigating the incidents".

Chief Minister, Mr Manik Sarkar visited the place on 20 March 2010, with a team of other administrative officials and promise administrative help. But the people are not satisfied with the words of the Chief Minister, as his words reflect in sending them to Mizoram at the earliest rather than relief help which was too little for them said one of the survivors of the fire accident.

The Reang/Bru displaced people are now sheltered at Gachiram Para Govt School and some at Community Hall of the area. The state government has lighten its responsibilities directing the issue to the Central Govt and the Mizoram Govt. The Mizoram Govt though promised to send relief aid to the victims but is yet to reach the people yet. A team of Central Govt is said to visit the area next week.
With no clothes, utensils, food the misery of the people is raising day by day. Though the government has promised to provide them with utensils, food and money, but it is yet to see how long it take to materialize. The Reang/Bru displaced people have been surviving with only khichiri for the past few days.

"The people were given khichri, rice and dal but no one cares about, where will they cook those foods as they dont even have any utensils left with them, they need all the materials from utensils to food, clothes to house building materials ", said Mr Anthony Debbarma sadly, a Human Rights Activist working with the Borok Peoples Human Rights Organization (BPHRO) an internationally recognized Human Rights NGO, and monitoring the incidents, after visiting the site with his team and urge the Government to help them immediately without directing the responsibilities to other Government.

JUST(Janna Unnayan Samity of Tripura) and IGSSS (Indo-German Social Service Society) together were too accessing the fire tragedy and were seen with the people working for them.

"With no precautions taken the possible disease outbreak will be cholera, diarrhea, typhoid and of course Malaria", said Dr Anut Debbarma of JUST.

JUST and IGSSS were to distribute Tarpaulin sheet, utensils, water storage, bed sheets, mosquito nets, clothes etc in coming days says Mr Debbarma in a telephonic conversion from Naisingpara.

With the ash remain of their belongings, the people of Naisingpara, getting little help from the government, were now waiting for a Good Samaritan to come and help them.

Sleeping under the open sky, lamenting on their lost friends and relatives, the people of Naisingpara looks at the ash remain of their houses, foods, clothes with tears in their eyes and uncertainty in their future.



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