The Sri Lankan government says the UN has asked it to explain allegations that Tamil Tiger rebel leaders were executed as they tried to surrender.

联合国要求斯里兰卡政府解释泰米尔猛虎组织叛军首领在试图投降的时候却被处决的断言。

Gen Fonseka's comments caused a storm of controversy¹

The president's office said it was studying the request and would take any action necessary.

The claims - rejected by the government - were first made in a Sri Lankan newspaper and attributed to Sri Lankan ex-military chief Gen Sarath Fonseka.

Gen Fonseka has since said his remarks were misunderstood.

The general, a candidate in next month's presidential election, has said he was only repeating what he had been told by journalists who had been at the scene.

However, government officials have accused Gen Fonseka of "betrayal".

After the war's bloody² end in May, some diplomats³ alleged⁴ that the army summarily概要地，立刻 killed a group of surrendering people led by senior Tiger rebels.

But the Sri Lankan government has said they were in fact shot by other rebel fighters.

The UN's request came from its special rapporteur记录员，书记 on extrajudicial法庭职权以外的 killings⁵, Philip Alston.

The statement from President Mahinda Rajapaksa's office said the UN "has asked the government to provide explanations with regard to the circumstances of the death of three senior LTTE泰米尔伊拉姆猛虎解放组织 [Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam] cadres干部，基础结构 and their families at the last stages of military operations to defeat the LTTE in May this year".

The Sri Lanka's government crushing military victory ended the Tigers' quarter-century war to create a separate state for ethnic⁶ minority Tamils.

The UN estimates that up to 7,000 civilians⁷ died in the final stages of the war, although the government disputes争论 the figures.

Both sides were accused of human rights violations⁸ and atrocities⁹残忍，暴行 during the long conflict.

'War without witness'

During the war's last few months it was difficult to obtain information from the battle zone as there were no independent monitors on the ground and media access to the conflict zone was strictly¹⁰ restricted.

As a result, Western nations described the conflict as a war without witness.

Analysts¹¹ say despite its repeated denials, the Sri Lankan government may find it difficult to convince the outside world, unless there is a credible¹² independent investigation¹³ into the final stages of the conflict.