However, the United Nations has estimated at least 7,000 civilians were also killed in the first four months of fighting while international rights groups say the figure could be as high as 30,000.
Sri Lanka has rejected a separate UN probe into alleged rights abuses and resisted US-led calls for an independent international war crimes investigation and instead appointed the LLRC.
The Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission (LLRC) visited the area in the island's north where Tiger chief Velupillai Prabhakaran was believed killed last year, the news alert service of the state-run Daily News said.
The eight-member panel can not investigate war crimes, but is expected to focus on why a 2002 truce between the government and the ethnic Tamil rebels collapsed and led to more fighting.
The government information department said the panel over the weekend heard from Tamils in the district of Kilinochchi where the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) maintained their political capit