June 4, 2002	Tuesday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 22,1423

COLOMBO, June 3: The Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), whose appetite for a separate state has been temporarily soothed by the United National Front government’s promises of handing over the interim administration of the North and East of the country to them, is seeming to find the task too big to chew.

Informed sources from the North East of the country say that the LTTE hierarchy has been holding informal meetings with a cross section of society from North Eastern areas about the feasibility of letting the Tamil National Alliance (TNA), consisting of a coalition of Tamil political parties, all who are at present in adherence with the LTTE, control the interim administration from ‘outside’, while the LTTE merely ‘show the way’.

According to LTTE sources ‘nothing definite’ has been decided as yet. Civilian sources point out that the meetings held so far with civilian bodies in LTTE monopolized areas have revealed that North East civilians prefer the North East Interim Administration falling into the hands of the TNA elected members, rather than the LTTE.

The LTTE after just around three months of cruising into establishing their political haven in government-controlled areas of the Northeast such as Jaffna, Batticaloa, Trincomalee and Vavuniya are feeling the heat of public disapproval over LTTE imposing their ‘tax’ system. Analysts point out that opting out of the interim administration is one way of the LTTE avoiding directly taking responsibility for its actions.

The public of the North and East has apparently revealed to the LTTE that they would welcome the TNA handling the interim administration instead of the LTTE.