Sri Lanka says will refuse entry to UN war crimes investigators

File picture shows Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa in the southwestern town of Beruwala, about 58 kms from capital Colombo, on June 18, 2014

Colombo (AFP) - Sri Lanka will not grant visas to UN investigators probing war crimes allegedly committed during the island's decades-long separatist conflict, President Mahinda Rajapakse said Tuesday.

Sri Lanka has refused to accept the authority of the UN Human Rights Council, which voted in March to investigate allegations that the military killed 40,000 civilians in the final months of the separatist war, which ended in 2009.