Jayantha Dhanapala, the Sri Lankan career diplomat who has entered the race to succeed Kofi Annan as UN Secretary General, has been a leading "gun grabber" at the U.N., in charge of a worldwide drive to ban civilian possession of firearms. He was behind the U.N. Conference on Small Arms. He is also a proponent of "guns for food" schemes to disarm populations. In addition, he is a strong opponent of a national missile defense for the U.S. that uses space-based weapons to defend the American people. ``I believe it is vitally important that we should preserve outer space for peaceful purposes and the development of missile defenses should in no way violate the present non-weaponized state of outer space,'' Dhanapala told Reuters news agency in 2001.
Dhanapala |
Dhanapala, the former UN undersecretary-general for disarmament affairs, was involved in a U.N. program, at the invitation of the Albanian government, "to help broker an agreement by which community services would be delivered in proportion to the volume of arms and munitions turned in." The deal involved "swapping their guns for improved social services."
Jayantha Dhanapala is expected to be backed by the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), described as "the global network of civil society organizations working to stop the proliferation and misuse of small arms and light weapons (SALW)." It claims that, "IANSA is now recognised by the UN as an important global NGO network with valuable expertise to contribute to discussions at all levels."
IANSA's acknowledges financial support from "the Governments of UK, Belgium, Sweden and Norway, as well as the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Compton Foundation, Ploughshares Fund, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Institute, Samuel Rubin Foundation and Christian Aid."
Dhanapala is also well-connected in Democratic Party circles. He was the 2002 recipient of the "Alan Cranston Peace Award," named for the late left-wing Democratic U.S. Senator, from the Global Security Institute. In 2003 he honored Rep. Nancy Pelosi for receiving the same award. He said of her: "Alan Cranston would have rejoiced at the selection of Nancy Pelosi as this year's recipient of his distinguished Peace Award. She understands well how multilateral disarmament serves concrete national and international security interests. She represents millions of women who share these convictions -- and millions of men who agree with them. She is a dedicated and eloquent spokesperson for a form of security that focuses primarily on meeting basic human needs."
Before his death, Cranston authored a book,
The Sovereignty Solution, which "argues that for humanity to survive the twenty-first century, we must adopt a more encompassing understanding of sovereignty, one that acknowledges the primacy of the individual, while emphasizing
the importance of strengthening international law and increasing the authority of multilateral institutions, such as the United Nations."
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