Tamil Rebels Plan to Start Own Government Unit in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka —  The largest Tamil separatist group in Sri Lanka will set up a civil administration this week in its northern stronghold of Jaffna in a direct challenge to the island’s government, a spokesman for the group said Wednesday.

Kanagaratnam, better known by his alias Raheem, deputy commander in Jaffna of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, refused to disclose exactly when or where the office would be established and said by telephone from Jaffna that there would be no ceremonial opening.

Raheem denied press reports that the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which controls most of the Tamil-dominated northern province, plans to declare an independent state in Jaffna today.

The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is the most powerful of the five main guerrilla groups fighting government troops in the north and east of this island nation off the tip of India.