The opposition United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) will stage “massive countrywide protests” to raise awareness about the dangers of the United Nations Human Rights Council resolution on Sir Lanka’s atrocities, warned an MP on Saturday.

The leader of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, a coalition member of the (UPFA), said,

The European Union agreed to provide a Euro 43.7 million grant for development projects in Sri Lanka.

30 million of the grant will go to the Central and UVA Provinces reports Colombo page.

The US Ambassador to Colombo Atul Keshap, announced an additional $1.745 million to add to the demining initiatives of international and domestic organisations working under the National Mine Action Committee (NMAC)

Reiterating US support for demining in Sri Lanka, Mr Keshap said,

Police summoned and questioned a Christian pastor after four Buddhist monks forcibly entered a church in Bandaragama, in the Kalutara District, on September 6, and claimed the church was not a registered place of worship.

The Officer in Charge of the police station ordered the pastor to register the church with the Ministry of Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs in order to continue operation, and was made to sign a document stating he would not continue with his religious activities until this was done.

The incident was reported in the National Christian Evangelical Alliance of Sri Lanka, in its periodic incident report.

The church was initially visited by officials on August 31, when 2 officers from the Ministry of Buddha Sasana and Religious Affairs informed the pastor that they were investigating a petition submitted against him and his religious activities.

The general secretary of the People's Servants' Party, Somawanse Amarasinghe, said the resolution passed at the UN Human Rights Council last week was a betrayal of Sri Lanka.

Mr Amarasinghe, who formerly led the JVP said he would form "the widest front" against imperialist, as they had not given up their agenda of dividing the country, the state-owned Daily News reported.

The inclusion of exiled victims and witnesses in Sri Lanka’s consultation for an accountability mechanism will be a litmus test of its credibility, writes former BBC correspondent Frances Harrison.

Writing in the Huffington Post, Ms Harrison noted that “the extent of organised sexual violence and torture by the Sri Lankan security forces in the post-war period and right up to the present day and the chilling way every medical facility was deliberately attacked is now a matter of record,” with the release of the OISL report.

“The fact the Sri Lankan security services this week went to question the only Tamil activist who spoke in public in Geneva appears to be an attempt to embarrass the government,” she added. “This sort of harassment causes disproportionate bad feeling and suspicion, especially when the target is a highly respected Catholic priest who works tirelessly with the families of the Disappeared.”

The European Union(EU) called for the abolition of the death penalty worldwide and welcomed Sri Lankan Justice Minister’s announcement that his government would vote in favour of the UN General Assembly resolution on a moratorium on the Death Penalty.

The EU statement comes as Sri Lanka’s parliament debated the reinstatement of capital punishment and as the government prepares to interview for a new hangman next week.

Sri Lanka’s Minister of Justice Wijeyadasa Rajapaksha said this week that the Foreign Minister told the UN Human Rights Council last month that Sri Lanka would not implement capital punishment. Mr Rajapaksha, who is also minister of the Buddha Sasana, said that the matter had to be considered carefully, and would not be implemented this year as Sri Lanka voted in favour of a UN resolution for a moratorium on the death penalty.

“The death penalty is a cruel and ineffective punishment,” said the EU. “Many death sentences are issued after confessions obtained by torture. Innocent people die and a person more likely to be sentenced to death if they are poor or belong to an ethnic or religious minority.”

The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), headed by President Maithripala Sirisena, said that there would be no room for an international or hybrid mechanism for Sri Lanka’s investigations into war time atrocities.