Eliyathamby Ratnasabapathy (November 3, 1938 – December 12, 2006) was one of the founding member of the Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students and a noted Marxist-Leninist political leader.EROS founder dies
By

Tamilnet TamilNet is an online newspaper that provides news and feature articles on current affairs in Sri Lanka, specifically related to the erstwhile Sri Lankan Civil War. The website was formed by members of the Sri Lankan Tamil community residing in ...

.com

Biography and political career

He was born in a small town called

Inuvil {{Infobox settlement , name = Inuvil , native_name = {{lang, ta, இணுவில்{{lang, si, ඉනුවිල් , settlement_type = Village , image_skyline = Inuvil kanthan.jpg , image_caption = Kandaswamy ...

in the

Jaffna Jaffna (, ; , ) is the capital city of the Northern Province, Sri Lanka, Northern Province of Sri Lanka. It is the administrative headquarters of the Jaffna District located on a Jaffna Peninsula, peninsula of the same name. With a population o ...

peninsula A peninsula is a landform that extends from a mainland and is only connected to land on one side. Peninsulas exist on each continent. The largest peninsula in the world is the Arabian Peninsula. Etymology The word ''peninsula'' derives , . T ...

in the minority

Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...

dominated north of Sri Lanka. He migrated to the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

when Sri Lanka was in the midst of its early stages of its

ethnic conflict An ethnic conflict is a conflict between two or more ethnic groups. While the source of the conflict may be political, social, economic or religious, the individuals in conflict must expressly fight for their ethnic group's position within so ...

. Eelam Revolutionary Organization of Students (EROS) was founded on January 3, 1975, at

Wandsworth Wandsworth Town () is a district of south London, within the London Borough of Wandsworth southwest of Charing Cross. The area is identified in the London Plan as one of 35 major centres in Greater London. Toponymy Wandsworth takes its name ...

London London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...

, in the residence of Eliyathamby Ratnasabapathy. It was led by a unified command of three persons: Ratnasabapathy, Shankar Rajee and Velupillai Balakumar. EROS through its contacts with

PLO The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO; ) is a Palestinian nationalist coalition that is internationally recognized as the official representative of the Palestinian people in both the occupied Palestinian territories and the diaspora. ...

sent many people including one

Arul Pragasam Arulappu Richard Arulpragasam (13 April 1948 – 3 December 2019), also known as Arular and A. R. Arulpragasam, was a Sri Lankan Tamil activist and former revolutionary from Jaffna who had a part in forming the group Eelam Revolutionary Organis ...

who became a leader of EROS to be trained in guerilla tactics in

Lebanon Lebanon, officially the Republic of Lebanon, is a country in the Levant region of West Asia. Situated at the crossroads of the Mediterranean Basin and the Arabian Peninsula, it is bordered by Syria to the north and east, Israel to the south ...

. It was later alleged that it was

George Habash George Habash (1 August 1926 – 26 January 2008) was a Palestinian politician and physician who was the founder and first general-secretary of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) from 1967 to 2000. Habash was born in Ly ...

PFLP The Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP; ) is a secular Palestinian Marxist–Leninist organization founded in 1967 by George Habash. It has consistently been the second-largest of the groups forming the Palestine Liberation ...

not the

that trained the early batch of Tamil militants from Sri Lanka. He contested the parliamentary elections in 1989 and was elected to the Sri Lankan Parliament along with nine other members of EROS, but later resigned.SRI LANKA: THE UNTOLD STORY Chapter 30: Whirlpool of violence
/ref> He died in London at age 68 after a long illness.

Reactions

In a tribute to Mr. Ratnasabapathy, the Tamil Information Center (TIC) in London said:

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ratnasabapathy, Eliyathamby 1938 births 2006 deaths Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students militants Eelam Revolutionary Organisation of Students politicians Members of the 9th Parliament of Sri Lanka Tamil politicians Sri Lankan Tamil rebels Sri Lankan Tamil people Sri Lankan Hindus English people of Sri Lankan Tamil descent

Biography and political career

Reactions

See also

References