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International-UN-NGOs
Follow That Car Kojo
2006-01-02
The tantrum with which Secretary General Annan greeted the now famous question about the missing Mercedes Benz tells us a lot about the tensions that are building at the United Nations, yawn. The question was lodged at a press conference by one of the best reporters in the U.N. press room, James Bone of the London Times. Mr. Annan, normally a mild-mannered, suave operator, excuse me while I puke lashed out at Mr. Bone, calling him "cheeky" and "an overgrown schoolboy," and accused him of being "an embarrassment" to journalism - upon which the august editorial page of the Wall Street Journal promptly invited Mr. Bone to relate the backstory.

The Mercedes Benz, described as a "sporty green" Jeep-type vehicle, is missing somewhere in Africa, really narrows it down doesn't it? and Mr. Annan, his son Kojo, and their army of spokesmen and lawyers, just don't seem to want to answer questions about: What happened to that car? Who owns it? Where is it parked? The September 7 report of the Independent Inquiry Committee headed by Paul Volcker has it that the car was bought in Geneva in the fall of 1998, just as the goods-inspection company Cotecna was about to land a fat contract with the U.N.'s oil-for-food program. Cotecna at the time employed Mr. Annan's son, Kojo. The secretary general contributed $15,000 toward the purchase of the car. Another contributor was a Cotecna official and a family friend of the Annans, Michael Wilson, who paid a $3000 deposit. Kojo Annan paid the rest.

The car was, however, not purchased under Kojo Annan's name, but under his father's. Claiming diplomatic discount helped in shaving 14.3% off the Mercedes ticket price of just under $40,000. A Ghanaian-based United Nations Development Program official, Abdoulie Janneh, helped in promoting the diplomatic immunity, and the car's owner avoided just over $20,000 in dues and shipping expenses as it was imported from Switzerland to Mr. Annan's homeland of Ghana. Some questions lingered since the Volcker committee ended its $34 million investigation in November. Many of those surrounded Mr. Annan's role - or lack thereof - in landing a U.N. contract for his son's employer, Cotecna. But none was as straightforward as the one that became a staple of the daily noon briefings: Where is that car?

Since Mr. Bone and others began asking it, neither the secretary general nor any of his aides or spokesmen has been able to come up with a simple answer. On November 20, our Benny Avni e-mailed the question to Mr. Annan's lawyer, Gregory Craig, who has yet to produce an answer. A week later, a spokesperson vaguely promised that Kojo Annan's lawyers will have some comment on the car "soon," but as of yet they have supplied none. Failing to explain as usual, the technicalities involved in lending his good name and good money to purchase a Mercedes, Mr. Annan has pretended the whole affair had nothing to do with him but of course, and everything to do with his wayward son. "I am neither his spokesman or his lawyer," the father said of his son last week at that press conference.

The question that lingers for us is why such a simple question needs so much attention from lawyers or spokespersons anyway. The fact that brilliant advocates like Mr. Craig et al. were unable to craft a simple answer after so many weeks that the issue has been in the limelight, hurting Mr. Annan's image so badly, is bizarre. Either there is some deep dark secret that needs to be protected, or another factor is at work here. In October Mr. Annan has publicly told our Mr. Avni that his "world is so small," urging him to "move on" and stop asking those nasty and highly embarrasing oil for food questions. The secretary general was apparently applauded by advisers eager to go on the attack. An emboldened Mr. Annan then went after Mr. Bone last week, but bullying from the bully pulpit backfired, and reporters are now more interested than ever in the story of the missing Mercedes.
Posted by:LarryTheCableGuy

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