By: John Perera, Newak, USA In a press release by the Media & Communications Wing of EROS, Nesan Shankar Raji, senior politburo member and spokesperson of EROS stated that this was welcome news for all EROS members. When questioned about the future intensions of EROS he stated that all EROS wants to do is work for the people in the war affected region and represent, their interests. We want to unite all Tamils and help eradicate regional indifferences. The government of Sri Lanka had already welcomed the news of the re-activation of EROS earlier this year however the party was waiting for the authorisation from the Ministry of Defence [MoD] to operate in the East and had to go through some formalities.
It should be noted that when the EROS split in 1990 and half of its members along with one of its leaders K.V. Balakumaran joined the LTTE and the remainder of its members stayed under the leadership of Shankar Raji who had been the one time Head of the EROS Military Wing. He passed away in January 2005. The EROS has always remained "neutral" when it comes to Sri Lankan politics and has always represented the true needs and aspiration of the Tamil speaking people. EROS has always addressed the Tamil speaking people as "Eelavars" irrespective of their religious beliefs.
The Ministry of Defence has assured the EROS and its members that adequate security arrangements will be made for them and its offices will be adequately safeguarded when re-opened. The Ministry of Defence are however reluctant to allow the EROS to operate in the East until the area is totally cleared by the armed forces.
The people of Trincomalee and Batticaloa are long awaiting the return of EROS for they are the only Tamil political party to have won 13 seats in parliament in a landslide victory in the 1989 elections which the LTTE later destroyed out of sheer fear of the ever growing popularity of EROS.
When questioned about the disarmament of the Karuna faction, Nesan Shankar Raji stated that "the TMVP's military wing carry arms to protect themselves from the LTTE and will voluntarily disarm once the threat from the LTTE is no more. Karuna Amman has stated this many times to the media. Sir John Holms must get his facts right and understand the true situation. The TMVP pose no threat to the civilians living in the East. They are a mainstream democratic political party just like the EPDP and PLOTE who also have arms to protect themselves from the LTTE threat. The TMVP's military wing will remain armed as long as the threat from the LTTE remains and so will other democratic mainstream political parties. Arms are not carried to intimidate or harass civilians. They serve a purpose and that is to protect one self from the LTTE. The UN and international governments should focus on dealing with the disarmament of the LTTE first. There can be no peace in Sri Lanka so long as the LTTE remain as a neo-fascist terrorist outfit".
Times have since changed and the EROS is ready to face any threat. They want to help smash growing Sinhala chauvinism by uniting the Tamils and the Sinhalese people and want to smash the LTTE's neo-fascist ideologies. Nesan Shankar Raji further added that "We want all Sri Lankans to be united and learn to respect and understand one another equally. The Tamils and Sinhalese race are not superior to one another. History is history and we must put the past behind us if we truly wish to achieve ever lasting peace. The LTTE are not the sole representatives of the Tamil speaking people and we must work towards alienating the Tamils speaking people from them. It is regrettable that Tamils are stereotyped in the West as being the Tigers which is not the case. A majority of Tamils do not want to have anything to do with the LTTE. It is important that we promote secular ideas amongst the Sri Lankan people which is what the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation will strive for", he added.
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