| UNSG Guterres
Protected Hezb Head of ESCWA now
Staff Speak out to Inner City
Press
by
Matthew Russell Lee, Patreon Book
Substack
UN GATE,
Oct 5 – How corrupt is today's
UN under Antonio Guterres?
When
Guterres announced as his head
of the Economic and Social
Commission for Western Asia in
Beirut one Rola Dashti, he
said she was
Kuwaiti.
Actually,
she is half Lebanese. And at
ESCWA, she has given contract
after contract to her contacts
and cronies, down to the
furniture. (This is her
mismanagement and retaliation
Inner City Press has already
exclusively reported).
Then, we
must reported more - or,
showed more: Rola Dashti with
the head of Hezbollah.
This as
Guterres parties with the UN
Correspondents Association,
including the representative
of Iran's IRIB, which
broadcasts coerced videos. His
spokesperson Stephane Dujarric
and Melissa Fleming have
refused to answer Press
questions.
This is the
UN of Guterres, who has thrown
out and still bans
Inner City Press which asks
and exposes. Now this:
An audible sigh
of relief, and a resounding
cry of “good riddance”, echoed
across ESCWA at the
long-overdue ignominious
demise of Rola Dashti, the
Executive Secretary. For
years, through these pages,
various media outlets, and
direct appeals to the
Secretary-General’s office, we
have consistently decried her
corruption, blatant disregard
for UN rules, her corrosive
favoritism, and the pervasive
culture of impunity she
cultivated.
Under her
leadership, ESCWA became a
cautionary tale: a place where
competent professionals were
sidelined, while sycophants
rose through opaque promotions
and crony-driven hires. Dashti
lost multiple lawsuits brought
by staff, costing the
organization tens of thousands
of precious dollars. She
shielded sexual predators and
enabled corrupt managers, all
while fostering an environment
in which vassalage was
rewarded and dissent
punished. The brave few
who dared question her methods
were summarily stripped of
responsibilities or cast aside
entirely. Her vindictive
leadership style – impatient,
imperious, and highfalutin –
stifled debate, crushed
morale, and eroded the very
foundation of ESCWA’s mission.
Her cockamamie pet projects,
often justified with specious
rationale, exposed a
superficial understanding of
the region we serve and an
alarming paradox between her
personal agenda and UN
values.
In her final act,
as part of the UN80 reform
efforts, Dashti submitted a
reckless proposal to downsize
ESCWA, abolishing posts
without transparent criteria
or logic. The plan is
emblematic of her legacy:
vindictive, opaque, and
entirely self-serving. With
her now gone, we call on New
York to reject this iniquitous
proposal outright. At a
minimum, it must be thoroughly
investigated, and any
restructuring must be grounded
in fairness, clear
justification, and
transparency.
Sincerely, Active ESCWA
staff who wish to remain
anonymous
Note:
Transparency is unlikely under
Guterres, who bans Press.
***
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