‘I fled with father 18 yrs ago, now with my son. Nothing changes’

“I was just 10 in 1996 but I remember escaping leaving everything behind, our house, cattle. This time I had to flee with my son. The same thing happens every year, it seems we are perennially on the run,” says Murmu at Chengamari camp in Kumargram, West Bengal, where he has taken shelter with 465 others.

Accusing both the Assam government and Centre of doing nothing, he fumes, “They are on the side of the Bodos. We don’t know if there will be a day that our plight comes to an end.”

Bandhana Tunda, 60, who is standing in a queue for relief at the Jijhri camp in Purbo Shalbari, last fled to a similar shelter in West Bengal some years ago. “We are always the victims. They have sophisticated arms but we have only bow and arrow and spears. The Assam government does not do anything for our protection,” he says. The Jijhri camp houses 275 people.

Most of the 856 refugees in the three camps here — at Chengamari, Purbo Shalbari and Madhya Haldibari — are survivors of earlier ethnic violence. “It’s a cycle and we are destined to run,” says Japan Tudu at Purbo Shalbari camp.

The refugees are largely Santhal tribals from villages such as Betbari, Shimlabari, Poshalbari, Bijonbari, Sarendrapur and Telipara in Kolkrajhar district. In a fourth camp, at Balapara, are housed Bodos who fled their homes to escape revenge attacks by tribals.

They have similar tales of escaping with what they had on the night of December 24, when they were getting ready to celebrate Christmas. “We were planning to slaughter a pig and have a feast when we heard that Bodos were coming and that they had killed our people. We saw flames and cries. So we rustled up whatever we could and ran. For some time we took shelter in the forest and then we started running again at 2 in the night and reached here at 10 the next day. I had 28 cows, five goats, four pigs and several hens at my house. I don’t know what has happened to them,” says Sushil Murmu of Shimlabari village.

Amidst the uncertainty, every bit of good news is to be celebrated. At Purbo Shalbari, Renuka Murmu, who is expected to deliver a child any day, was taken to hospital on Sunday. Meanwhile, Chhoto Kisku is preparing a feast to mark the birth of his son.

“I could not do anything when he was born 15 days ago but now I will rejoice in a small way,” Kisku says. “Maybe distribute some gur (jaggery)”.