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| Another Kofi Annan Witch Hunt? |
12/20/2006 |
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Apt. subsidy saved Kofi kin a bundle
(New York Daily News) -- He not only lives rent-free on one of New York''s swankiest blocks, but outgoing UN head Kofi Annan also got a subsidized apartment after first arriving in the city, it was revealed yesterday. Annan, then a Ghanaian official with the United Nations, moved into the Roosevelt Island flat in 1978 under the state''s Mitchell-Lama program, which helps low- and moderate-income New Yorkers find housing.
And in a twist most New Yorkers would envy, the three-bedroom unit passed to his brother''s family when Annan became UN secretary general in 1997 and moved to a brownstone on Sutton Place.
"I think you know that my brother lived there, so I don''t think I can say any more about that," Annan said yesterday.
The apartment is now a home to Kobina Annan, who is Ghana''s ambassador to Morocco, and Kobina Annan''s wife and son.
Over the past 10 years, the subsidy could total well over $100,000, according to a tally in The New York Sun, which disclosed the Annans'' sweet deal in yesterday''s edition.
Peter Moses, a spokesman for the state Division of Housing and Community Renewal, which administers the Mitchell-Lama program, said it''s agency policy not to comment on tenants.
But, he said, "In order for someone to initially occupy a Mitchell-Lama apartment, they have to fall within Mitchell-Lama guidelines."
Moses added that in 1997, regulations would have allowed Annan''s brother to claim succession rights if they had jointly occupied the apartment, which they say they did.
Kofi Annan held onto the apartment even after marrying Nane Lagergren, who comes from a wealthy Swedish family, in 1984.
A UN spokesman said, "During his many years in New York he has always been a law-abiding resident."
Kofi Annan Sidesteps Questions About Roosevelt Island Apartment
UNITED NATIONS (The SUN) — In his last U.N. press conference, Secretary-General Annan yesterday sidestepped a question about how the lease of a sought-after low-income residence he once lived in came to be held by a member of his family. State and city legislators have expressed outrage over the Annan family''s use of the Roosevelt Island apartment — which Mr. Annan lived in before becoming U.N. secretary-general 10 years ago — calling it "corrupt" and "unreal."
Although much of Roosevelt Island is dedicated to low- and middle-income housing, many of its current residents are U.N. employees or foreign diplomats. Among them is a recent influx of North Korean diplomats, who have been seen on the island in cars bearing official emblems of the communist state.
Mr. Annan indicated yesterday that since he no longer lives in the Roosevelt Island apartment, he has nothing to do with it. He did, however, confirm that his brother lives there. The brother, Kobina Annan, is Ghana''s ambassador to Morocco.
"I know that my spokesman answered the thing," Mr. Annan told The New York Sun at his press conference yesterday. "I do not hold the lease on an apartment or own an apartment on the island, and I think you know that my brother lives there."
Mayor Bloomberg, who has had friendly relations with the secretary-general, said yesterday that he had "no idea whether Kofi Annan''s brother is living there or what the terms of him living there are, if he''s living there. So I really just don''t know."
As Claudia Rosett reported in the Sun yesterday, Mr. Annan moved out of the apartment in the federally subsidized building in the mid-1990s, but his brother''s wife, Ekua Annan, says she now holds the lease.
The Sun sent a list of detailed questions about the apartment for yesterday''s article, but Mr. Annan''s spokesman, Stephane Dujarric, limited his response to two blanket statements.The outgoing secretary-general "has always lived within his means,"Mr. Dujarric said, and during his many years in New York, Mr. Annan "has always been a law-abiding resident."
The explanation was not sufficient for some New York legislators.
"You figure with all the illegal oil deals, you think the Annan family would have the courtesy of paying for market rate housing," City Council Member James Oddo, a Republican of Staten Island, said."It is unreal.Just put it on New York''s tab, with unpaid diplomatic parking tickets," he added, saying the affair involving Mr. Annan is "just another reason to bid him a fond adieu."
State Senator Martin Golden, a Republican of Brooklyn, compared the Annans'' Roosevelt Island residence to the oil-for-food scandal, saying the continued use of the apartment is typical of Mr. Annan''s "fiefdom"and "the culture that has been accepted within his family for years."
"I have never seen anything as corrupt as this," Mr. Golden said. "If this was an American corporation, these people would be taken off in cuffs."
Mr. Annan and his family have been embroiled in several scandals during his tenure as secretary-general; at the press conference yesterday, Mr. Dujarric also shielded him from a reporter who was planning to ask about the use of Mr. Annan''s name to purchase a Mercedes-Benz, reportedly for his son Kojo.
Yesterday''s snub of the reporter, James Bone of the London Times, attracted some attention, as Mr. Annan''s tongue lashing of Mr. Bone at a previous press conference made international headlines and was included in a recent biography of the secretary-general.
"I am flattered," Mr. Bone said later. "He obviously doesn''t want to take my still-unanswered questions about the Mercedes."
Asked yesterday if he had any personal regrets about his 10-year tenure, Mr. Annan said, "I think I''ll pass on that one."
Source:
The Sun
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