According to estimates by the UN agency, more than 80,000 refugees fled the combat zone in the last three days of the offensive. The overall number of Internally Displaced People (IDPs) now stands at 280-300,000.

About 230,000 of them are in 41 relief centres spread across four districts of the Northern Province. Another 50,000 have not yet been registered.

Sri Lanka’s armed forces said that among the refugees about 9,100 individuals directly connected with the Tamil Tigers were identified.

Military spokesman Udaya Nanayakkara said that they would be moved to centres in Vavuniya, Welikanda and Jaffna to take part in the government’s rehabilitation programme; among them an unknown  number of child soldiers.

In the meantime IDPs are living in appalling conditions. UN Secretary general Ban Ki Moon, who was in Sri Lanka last Saturday where he saw IDP conditions first hand at Manik Farm, said he had never seen such awful conditions, by far the worst, despite having visited a lot of similar places.

Never the less, Ban Ki-moon and President Mahinda Rajapkasa agreed to joint statement in which the United Nations announced that it will provide humanitarian assistance to IDPs in Vavuniya and Jaffna, whilst the government said it would give humanitarian agencies access to camps and meet refugees’ basic needs. It also pledged that it would pursue a national solution to the conflict that would involve all groups in Sri Lankan society.

As he announced in his 19 May address to parliament, President Rajapaksa told the UN secretary general that he intends to amend the constitution to provide regional governments with more powers.

Today a meeting was held at the ministry in charge of local government to plan elections for 32 municipalities in the main districts of the Northern province, including Jaffna and Vavuniya.