COLOMBO, 25 September 2003 — President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s office warned yesterday that Muslims are taking up arms to fight the Tamil Tiger rebels’ domination in the island’s east.

“Young Muslim men are increasingly becoming militant to defend themselves against attacks from the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam,” Kumaratunga’s spokesman, Harim Peiris, told a news conference.

Tamils, who are mostly Hindu, are the island’s largest minority group. The Tamil Tiger rebels control pockets in the east and have increased their presence since signing a cease-fire with the government in February 2002.

The guerillas are accused of killing, abducting and extorting Muslims, who are also a minority.

“They (Muslims) are seeking to procure and some of them have procured weapons ... maybe locally or from overseas,” Peiris said, citing intelligence reports and information from Muslim leaders.

“Last thing we need is a holy or religious war here,” Peiris said. “This is a very serious situation ... and a significant security lapse on the part of the prime minister and the government.”

Kumaratunga shares an uneasy cohabitation arrangement with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and has long criticized the government’s efforts to broker peace with the Tamil Tigers.

The majority of Sri Lankans are Sinhalese, who are mostly Buddhist.

The Tamil Tigers started fighting in 1983 for a separate homeland for Tamils, and nearly 65,000 people were killed in the civil war before the truce.

Since the truce, the rebels have agreed to settle for autonomy rather than independence.

But the peace process has been stalled since April when the rebels pulled out of talks, accusing the government of failing to help resettle Tamils displaced by the conflict.

On Wednesday, thousands of people participated in a cultural rally in northern Sri Lanka, demanding a rebel-led administration for the Tamil-majority northeast and the immediate withdrawal of troops from the area, the event’s organizers said.

The planned resettlement of thousands of displaced Tamils has been hindered by the occupation of private lands by government forces and their continued presence in the region, said S. Divakaran, the event’s chief organizer, in a statement.

The Pongu Tamil — or Tamil resurgence — festival was held in Vavuniya, 210 kilometers (130 miles) north of the capital Colombo, and featured drama, dancing and other cultural events with the intention of voicing rebel demands and demonstrating their strength, he said.

Thousands of people, including school children, took part in a peaceful march and cultural show, said R. M. Wijenayake a police officer in Vavuniya.

“Normalcy has not been realized and the development of Tamil areas has become stagnated because the government has failed to implement decisions made during peace talks,” S. Divakaran said.

Peace talks will restart only if the troops are immediately withdrawn and an interim administration is established, headed by the rebels, the statement said.

Sri Lanka has deployed thousands of troops in the northeast, the traditional home of the island’s 3.2 million minority Tamils.

Rebels say the continued occupation of private homes and lands by government troops violates the truce which provides for the resettlement of displaced people and a return to normalcy in former war zones.

The military says it has already removed troops from some houses and public buildings, but says it wants the rebels to disarm before it closes its camps in high security zones. The rebels refuse to disarm.