The young man, Bruno Msha, is the general secretary of the Bru (Reang) refugee committee. He isn't sure what the boy died of. ``He had fever the previous evening, probably malaria. It could be malnutrition also, but it's no use trying to find out because there's no one to give us medicine,'' he says.

``Very true,'' agrees Dr L S Reang of neighbouring Dasda village who sets up a makeshift clinic near the refugee camp every day, ``two or three people are dying every day, mostly of malaria and diarrhoea. Not to speak of medicine, they can't afford to pay the Rs ten I charge per prescription.''

As evening approaches, men, women and children trudge their way back to the camp from the forests. They carry bamboo poles and leaves to thatch their new homes. And they bring basketfuls of yum, a root that grows in abundance in the forests,for the evening meal. ``It's tasty but can be dangerous for the liver if taken regularly,'' Dr Reang says.

Obviously, many of the refugees are taking it regularly, not for the taste but because they have little else to survive on. The result: 260 deaths since November in the main camp at Gachirampara, about 30 km from this small market town on the Tripura-Mizoram border. They maintain a register of deaths at the refugee committee office. But at the two other neighbouring camps at Lankai and Asapara villages, no one keeps count of the toll.

Here the Reangs (who call themselves Bru) have been flocking since October-end, hounded out of their homes in Mizoram by marauding bands of Mizo youth who burnt down their villages, raped their women and killed about 50 of them. Their flock increases every day. While most of them had crossed the Mizoram border into Tripura, others took shelter in the Hailakandi area of Assam and even in the forests of the adjoining Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh. But the AssamGovernment refused to help, forcing the refugees to flock to the camps here. Their number here has thus grown to about 26,000. Not that they find it any easier to stay alive here. All that the Tripura Government has managed to provide them are tarpaulin sheets and 450 grams of rice per person per day. Doctors are sent twice a week but medicines are scarce. Help came also from a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS)-sponsored organisation, Kalyanashram, which distributed clothes and salt. ``But it is water that's killing our people,'' Bruno says. The refugees are using water from small streams for drinking and washing. No wonder the air over the camps stinks. For the flickers of hope they had about returning to their homes in Mizoram were burnt out in November itself.

That month, following talks between the two governments of Tripura and Mizoram, the stage was set for repatriating them to their homes. But fresh trouble erupted. About 3,000 refugees who retraced their steps homeward had to flee Mizoram again.``That boy there came back yesterday,'' Bruno points to a youth who says he walked through jungle tracks at night for about eight hours to cross into Tripura again. ``I worked at a timber godown owned by a Mizo. They said I must leave the place or die.'' But leaving his village was as difficult as staying there, because Mizo policemen were guarding the border paths. Both for the Mizoram police and the Mizo youths, the war cry is the Reangs shall not pass.

(Tomorrow: Reangs' autonomy demand sparked Mizo offensive)