(NewsRadio); Former United Nations Under-Secretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala has passed away at the age of 85 in Kandy.
Veteran diplomat Dhanapala passed awaywhile receiving treatment at the Kandy National Hospital.
One of the distinguished old boys of Trinity College Kandy, Jayantha Dhanapala received many international awards and honorary doctorates, and has published five books and several articles in international journals and lectured widely.
After several diplomatic postings, Jayantha Dhanapala was handpicked by then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to take on the challenging job of Under-Secretary-General for the Office for Department Disarmament.
He functioned as the UN Under-Secretary-General between 1998 and 2003.
After serving Sri Lanka at diplomatic missions in London, Washington DC, Geneva and New Delhi, Jayantha Dhanapala’s name was also proposed for the UN Secretary-General post.
In 2018, President Ranil Wickremesinghe as the then Prime Minister nominated Jayantha Dhanapala to function as a member of the Constitutional Council.
He was a member of the Constitutional Council till 2020. Jayantha Dhanapala also engaged pro-actively in political, disarmament, economic, trade, human rights and cultural matters in both bilateral and multilateral contexts.
During one the interview with NewsRadio, Jayantha Dhanapala expressed his views on the Ukrainian war and its impact on Sri Lanka.
Jayantha Dhanapala said Sri Lanka must condemn the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking to NewsRadio, Dhanapala said the Russian-Ukraine crisis will have a lasting impact on oil prices.
