Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe says the government's inquiry into abductions has found that the principle blame for the loss of civilian life during the last phase of the armed conflict laid with the LTTE.

The commission's report rejects the findings of the UN Panel of Expert's report, which said that 'a number of credible sources' have estimated that there could have been as many as 40,000 civilian deaths.

Mr Wickremesinghe tabled the Maxwell Paranagama Commission report and the Udalagama Commission report along with the UNHRC report on alleged human rights violations in Sri Lanka, in parliament on Tuesday.

Sections of the “Missing Person's Commission”, also known as the Paranagama Commission, seen by Channel 4, seemed to accept that crimes were perpetrated by the army.

Excerpts published by the British broadcaster appeared refreshingly honest about the allegations against the military, conceding that evidence of executions, previously contested by the government, were unlikely to be faked.

The former Chief of Staff of the Sri Lankan Army, Major General Udaya Perera, is even quoted as saying, "more than the Government of Sri Lanka, it is we, the army who should take responsibility, if that cowardly killing happened at the hands of our men".

However, according to the prime minister, the commission found that the majority of Tamils killed during the last 12 hours of the war were killed by the LTTE, contrary to what the OHCHR Investigation in Sri Lanka found in its report. The OISL report says that a large number of Tamils were likely to have been executed by the army in the last day of the armed conflict.

The commission accepted that a significant number of civilians died due to government shelling, however blamed the LTTE for this too.

"The commission stresses that this was an inevitable consequence of the LTTE's refusal to permit civilians to leave their control in order to use them both as a shield and a pool for recruitment, even when the GOSL permitted a ceasefire on April 12." the report says.