A film about the Sri Lankan civil war from the Tamil perspective is to be screened in London's West End on December 19, despite accusations that the banned Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is involved in its production.

In The Name of Buddha is described as an untold story from a Tamil viewpoint that portrays the conflict between indigenous Tamils, the Sri Lankan Army and Indian peacekeeping forces.

The conflict began in 1983 and according to United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees figures, 60,000 people lost their lives and 900,000 fled their homelands in Sri Lanka.

"The film's accounts of human rights violations inflicted on ordinary families in their homelands in North Eastern Sri Lanka contains disturbing scenes of the violence and prejudice that descended on the community mainly from Sri Lanka's Buddhist population," a spokesperson for the British production company, Da' Sai Films, and Indian director Rajesh Touchriver, said.

The film made its debut on November 17 at the 12th Oslo International Film Festival, just days before the Sri Lankan Aid Conference in the Norwegian capital.

Clare Short, Britain's secretary of state for international development, Sri Lanka's chief peace negotiator G L Peris, chief LTTE negotiator Anton Balasingham, and US and Norwegian officials attended it.

Sri Lankan media reports say Foreign Secretary Nihal Rodrigo and Foreign Ministry Secretary General Bernard Gunatillke have ordered an inquiry into whether the LTTE had a hand in the movie.

One Sri Lankan media report describes the film as "anti-Buddhist and representing the interests of Tiger terrorism and western imperialism".