President Chandrika Kumaratunga today established an apex body to assist and facilitate all disaster relief activities undertaken by the various Government and Non Governmental Organizations. This National Relief Operations Unit (NROU) will be chaired by the Secretary to the President. The Secretary to the Prime Minister and senior officials from the ministries of Health, Rehabilitation, Foreign Affairs, Education, Power & Energy, Highways, Justice and Housing will be members of this special Unit.

The NROU will be headquartered at the Presidential Secretariat and has already begun coordinating with the special UN team now in Sri Lanka to undertake a situation analysis and asses the needs of the people in the affected regions of the country.

The ten member UN team will also operate from the Presidential Secretariat and will report to the NROU their findings. The UN Team members will travel in small groups to the affected areas for their study.