WORLD BRIEFING / SRI LANKA

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon toured Sri Lanka’s biggest refugee camp and said the country did not have the resources to deal with the tens of thousands of people who fled amid the military offensive against the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Ban’s trip was the first top-level international visit to Sri Lanka since the government declared victory Monday over the Tamil Tiger rebels in a 25-year war. Ban flew over the final battleground and met with President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Ban told Rajapaksa that the United Nations and other international humanitarian agencies needed immediate and unimpeded access to the camps housing 290,000 people who escaped rebel-held areas as the military advanced.

The secretary-general toured Manik Farm, home to 220,000 people living in white tents, and visited a sparse field hospital treating wounded civilians. Many people complained of overcrowding and said they were not getting proper medical attention.

“The government is doing its utmost,” Ban said at a news conference. “But the government lacks resources.”