pass the roti on the left hand side

People have been celebrating on the streets of Colombo - flags hoisted, fire crackers going off. But those who fled the fighting in the north-east face an uncertain future after months of trauma. Tony Senewiratne, national director for Habitat for Humanity in Sri Lanka, has just returned from a camp for displaced people and describes the humanitarian challenges ahead.

U.N. aid agencies say they are being denied access to some camps for displaced people in northern Sri Lanka, hindering their ability to help Tamil civilians displaced by the recent fighting between government troops and Tamil Tiger rebels.

The U.N. refugee agency says the number of civilians who have fled the fighting in northern Sri Lanka over the last few months has now reached 280,000. This includes an estimated 80,000 people who have left the former combat zone in the last three days.

The Sri Lankan government made the pledge following President Mahinda Rajapaksa's meeting on Thursday with two senior envoys from the government of India. It comes amid growing international concern over the humanitarian situation in the crowded, fenced-in camps where the displaced civilians are being kept...

Civilian casualties in Sri Lanka's civil war have skyrocketed in the past two months, Human Rights Watch said Friday, calling on the government to stop firing artillery indiscriminately into the northern war zone...

Health officials and witnesses have accused the government of launching artillery barrages into areas crowded with civilians, while also accusing the rebels of shooting civilians who tried to flee to safety. Confirmation of the allegations is not possible because independent journalists are barred from the area.