Sri Lankan officials are dismissing a call by the country's defeated
rebel Tamil Tigers to regroup and form a parallel government, calling
it a "hallucination."
On Tuesday Tamil Tiger leader Selvarasa Pathmanathan released a
recorded statement calling on supporters to form a "transitional
government" to carry forward the rebel goal of creating a separate
state.
Pathmanathan is the international relations chief of the defeated
Tigers and is believed to be living in exile. He is wanted by Interpol
in connection with the Tamil Tiger rebels' smuggling and weapons
networks.
Sri Lanka's foreign minister said the rebel leader is "dreaming" and expressed hope that he would be arrested soon.
Sri Lankan troops ended the more than 25-year war with the Tamil Tigers
last month, when government forces overran the last rebel-held
territory and claimed they killed the militants' top commander.