Sothi Risha was a farmer until he was shelled out of his village north of Batticaloa, a town in eastern Sri Lanka, in March. When he and his wife and four children arrived at a camp for the displaced near the coastal town, he bought a fishing net to help feed his now aid-dependent family.
The local fishermen don't like newcomers on their patch, Mr Risha said, as he mended his net beside a small tent, one in a long row, made of white plastic sheeting, which sagged in the 40-degree Celsius heat. He longed to go home to his crops. But he counted himself lucky; his wife's uncle was killed by army shells as he fled from his home on a bicycle.
The camps that dot the landscape of eastern Sri Lanka are full of such stories.
More than 150,000 people have been displaced in recent months by a vast military offensive, backed by heavy artillery, to drive the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), known as the Tamil Tigers, out of the east.
As Sri Lanka's conflict enters a new and terrible phase, there are fears it will result in more civilian displacement and suffering.
Since 1983, Sri Lanka's government, representing the Sinhalese and Buddhist majority - around 75 per cent - has been battling the Tigers, who want a homeland in the north and east for the island's Tamil - and mainly Hindu - minority.
A ceasefire, brokered by Norway in 2002, promised an end to the violence, which has killed 70,000. But the election of a belligerent Sinhalese-nationalist government in late 2005, led by President Mahinda Rajapaksa, prompted a resumption of hostilities.