NOV 03 - I read with great interest your lead story on the UN Regional Centre for Peace and Disarmament for Asia and the Pacific meant to be sited in Kathmandu (October 31, 2003).
I wish to congratulate your correspondent Damakant Jayshi for bringing to public notice the important, if neglected, issue of why the said centre is still not physically operating here, as called for in a UN General Assembly resolution dating back to 1988.
I wonder if concerned Shital Niwas mandarins and their political bosses would care to answer the serious charge leveled by the centre’s New York-based director Tsutomu Ishiguri that “Nepal has to fulfill the UN requirements first before the centre is relocated.”
As Nepal’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN, 1985-1990, I wish to provide a new nuggets of information regarding the UN decision in 1988 to locate the centre in Kathmandu. That was largely the result of deft diplomacy by Nepal’s UN mission, led by Ambassador Jai Pratap Rana, utilising, among other resources, Nepal’s influential position then as a non-permanent member of the UN Security Council.
In addition, there were Nepal’s peace and disarmament credentials, reflected both in her well-established tradition in UN peacekeeping, as also her Zone of Peace proposal which, at that point, had already secured the endorsement of more than 100 UN member states.
We at the Mission knew that while such centres had long been established in Africa and Latin America, the setting up of a similar centre in the Asia/Pacific area had been held up because of the well-know rivalry between India and Pakistan over its location.
Ambassador Rana first skillfully got around seeking support for
the idea from the Asian Group, including from Indian Ambassador Gharekhan. Simultaneously, he successfully lobbied the then head of the UN Disarmament Department, Yakushi Akashi, to personally approach private Japanese foundations to bear the expenses so that the cost would come from outside the regular UN budgetary process.
At a time when Ambassador Rana is reportedly returning to Kathmandu from Washington (he is currently ambassador to the US) due to ill health, I believe it would be in the fitness of things to recall his role in the UN decision to set up the centre in Kathmandu.
M R Josse
via e-mailPosted on: 2003-11-02 11:06

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