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Damian Lascu

Damian Lascu was a Romanian engineer and diplomat, and a United Nations civil servant. Born in Romania on October 3, 1931, he worked as a Senior Civil Engineer for the Directorate of Bridges and Highway Construction, headquartered in Sibiu (1956–1959) and as Head of the Directorate from 1959–1963. Among the projects he oversaw on the engineering side is the railway bridge over the Olt river, still used today. Damian Lascu then pursued a Post-Graduate Degree in International Relations at the Faculty of Law, Bucharest (1963–1965) and subsequently worked as Head of the Technical Assistance Bureau at the Division for International Organizations in Romania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1965–1971).

He joined the United Nations as a UN civil servant in 1971. There, he served as Area Officer in the Regional Bureau for Europe, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East (until 1977) and as a Senior Area Officer (1977–1978) at the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in New York. During this time, he continued to advance on the Romanian diplomatic ladder, as First Secretary, and then as Counselor, taking all the requisite exams.

While in New York, Romania's communist government decided to assert greater control over its nationals abroad and forced him and his family to move into a building acquired by the Permanent Mission of Romania to the United Nations (at 573–577 3rd Avenue, New York). During that time, adults in the building attended weekly communist indoctrination sessions and were forced, among others, to cheer on the tarmac the arrival of Romanian communist leaders, including that of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

In 1979, Damian Lascu was appointed Resident Representative of the United Nations Development Program in Rwanda. While heading the U.N. office in Rwanda, he oversaw several projects, including the construction of a pyrethrum refinery (Rwanda is today the second largest producer of the insecticide), and of gas extraction facilities in Lake Kivu.

In April, 1986, Damian Lascu applied for refugee status and political asylum at the United States Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. Six months later, he was granted permanent residency in the United States. He was one of the highest-ranking Romanian diplomats to defect to the West. In April, 1987, he was tried in absentia by a Romanian military tribunal for refusing to return to Romania, and sentenced to seven years in prison, with an additional five years loss of civil rights. The Romanian government also took over his house and confiscated all his possessions. After the fall of communism in Romania, in January, 1990, his sentence was vacated.

Damian Lascu returned to the UNDP New York headquarters in 1986 as a Principal Technical Advisor at the Technical Advisory Division of the Bureau for Program Policy and Evaluation, where he worked until retirement, in November, 1991. He became a U.S. citizen in 1992.

Damian Lascu is married to Lucia Lascu and has two daughters.