Sri Lanka’s defeated ethnic Tamil rebel movement has sounded a note of defiance by announcing it is setting up a “transnational” government among the group’s overseas diaspora in a move likely to anger Colombo.

The statement was released by the pro-rebel Tamilnet website and was reportedly signed by Selvarasa Pathmanathan, the head of international relations for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, which was crushed by government forces on the battlefield last month.