JFK Courage award goes to UN's Annan

BOSTON, March 11 (UPI) -- U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Dean Koldenhoven, the one-term mayor of Palos Heights, Ill., have been named winners of this year's John F. Kennedy Profile in Courage Award, it was announced Monday.

Annan and Koldenhoven will be presented their awards May 6 by Caroline Kennedy at the JFK Kennedy Library and Museum in Boston.

"President Kennedy felt his greatest admiration for those in politics who had the courage to make decisions of conscience without fear of the consequences," the president's daughter said. "It is this unique kind of courage for which we honor Secretary-General Kofi Annan and Dean Koldenhoven."

The award, named after the slain president's Pulitzer Prize-winning book, "Profiles in Courage," is presented annually to an elected official who withstands strong opposition from constituents and powerful interest groups to take what she or he believes is the right courts of action, the Library Foundation said in a news release.

Caroline Kennedy said the events of Sept. 11 have forever changed the way most Americans see their elected officials and public servants, and that thousands of individual acts of extraordinary courage and selfless public service "have given new meaning to the words, 'ask what you can do for your country,' and ennobled us all."

Annan, a native of Ghana, was cited for leading the United Nations in bringing together diverse countries and political forces to combat terrorism in the wake of Sept. 11.

Without Annan's courageous and skilful leadership of the world organization during this time of grave crisis, U.S. efforts to respond to terrorism could have been severely undercut by UN member states, the foundations said.

Koldenhoven, 66, was honored for speaking out against bigotry and religious intolerance toward and Islamic community whose hopes to convert a church into a mosque ran into stiff opposition by many residents and City Council members in the Chicago suburb of Palos Heights.

The Al Salam Mosque Foundation ultimately abandoned plans to move to the community, saying there were apprehensions about relocating the mosque to a community where it was not wanted.

Koldenhoven, in what many believe was the result of his criticism of what he saw as bigotry, was defeated in his re-election bid last April.

The JFK Library Foundation also announced that a special and unprecedented Profile in Courage Award for Public Service has been awarded to thousands of public servants, including private citizens, who demonstrated extraordinary courage and heroism in response to the terrorist attacks.