the panel's work revealed "a very different version of the final stages of the war than that maintained to this day by the government of sri lanka". the panel found "credible allegations" which, if proven, indicated that war crimes and crimes against humanity were committed by the sri lankan military and the rebel liberation tigers of tamil eelam (tamil tigers). the panel concluded that "the conduct of the war represented a grave assault on the entire regime of international law designed to protect individual dignity during both war and peace". the panel found that as many as 40,000 civilians may have been killed in the final months of the civil war, most as a result of indiscriminate shelling by the sri lankan military. the panel has called on the unsg to conduct an independent international investigation into the alleged violations of international humanitarian and human rights law committed by both sides. the sri lankan government has rejected the entire report, calling it "fundamentally flawed in many respects", and as being based on "patently biased" and unverified material.