EROS representatives meet with Palestinian delegation

By Thirumal Thirunesan

(November 03, London, Sri Lanka Guardian) Representatives of the Eelam Revolutionary Organisation (EROS) led by its London based spokesperson Nesan Shankar Raji met with the Ambassador of the Palestinian Delegation to the United Kingdom, Professor Manuel Hassassian today at their headquarters in Hammersmith, London.

Both the PLO and EROS have enjoyed a very good working relationship spanning more than 3 decades. Founding members of EROS led by its revolutionary ideologue Eliyathamby Ratnasabapathy, said to be the Godfather of the Eelavar Tamil revolutionary movements received their arms and munitions training courtesy of the PLO in their training camps based in the outskirts of Beirut in the late ‘70’s.

Key members of the Eelam Peoples Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF), a splinter group of EROS too received their weapons training from the PLO including present day Minister of the Eelam Peoples Democratic Party (EPDP) Douglas Devananda, a Government backed paramilitary group predominantly based in Jaffna, Sri Lanka.

EROS members discussed various issues with Professor Hassassian relating to the plight of the 300,000+ Sri Lankan Tamils civilians locked up in the IDP camps in Vavuniya, and the Palestinian people in Gaza and the West Bank suffering under the clutches of the chauvinistic Israeli forces. They also discussed topics in relation to armed abductions and disappearances of innocent civilians and state sponsored terrorism. EROS has offered to extend its full support to the PLO in support of their cause and work hand-in-hand on key issues relating to the fundamental demands of the Palestinian and Sri Lankan Tamil people including the right to self-determination.

A memorial event is expected to be jointly organised by EROS to commemorate the 30th death anniversary of the late PLO leader Khalil Ibrahim al-Wazir alias "Abu Jihad" (late PLO leader Yaseer Arafat’s No #2) who was brutally assassinated by Mossad agents April 16th 1988 at his home in Tunis. Abu Jihad played an important role in the 1970-71 Black September clashes in Jordan, by supplying surrounded Palestinian fighters with weapons and aid and also planned numerous attacks inside Israel against both civilian and military targets.

The late Abu Jihad was responsible for arranging the initial training of EROS cadres in Lebanon in the late ‘70’s and was a very close friend of both late Eliyathamby Ratnasabapathy and late Shankar Rajee, founding members of EROS. The forthcoming memorial event is also expected to commemorate the martyrs of EROS who laid down their lives for the Eelam cause.

The Eelam Revolutionary Organisation (EROS) is the only Sri Lankan Tamil revolutionary group to have successfully assassinated a Mossad agent at the Hotel Oberoi in Colombo in the early 1980’s and was responsible for the ’84 bombings that rocked Colombo.

-Sri Lanka Guardian