Subject: NYT: East Timor Group Files Suit over
Refusal to Rename Street
Date: Sat, 22 May 1999 10:22:30 -0400
From: "John M. Miller" <fbp@igc.apc.org>Two notes: A shorter version of
this article actually appeared in the printed version of the paper. This is from their web
site. Second, ETAN does not support independence for East Timor, but self-determination
for the East Timorese. It is up to them to freely decide their political status.
John
May 20, 1999
East Timor Group Files Suit over Refusal to Rename Street By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN
A New York group favoring independence for East Timor, the island annexed by Indonesia
in 1976, has filed a Federal lawsuit against the city because it twice denied a request to
rename temporarily a part of East 68th Street in Manhattan in support of the group's
cause.
In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Federal District Court in Manhattan, the East Timor
Action Network contends that its free-speech rights were violated when the Department of
Transportation rejected the group's request to rename East 68th Street near the Indonesian
Consulate, between Fifth and Madison Avenues.
The city routinely allows private organizations and businesses to rename city streets
temporarily to promote public, nonprofit and cultural events or to commemorate
historically important events or people or to honor individuals or community groups. The
sponsoring group must pay for the street signs.
In its first request last fall, the East Timor Action Network asked to install street
signs reading "1991 Santa Cruz Massacre" at the northwest corner of 68th Street
and Madison Avenue and at the southeast corner of 68th Street and Fifth Avenue.
The signs were intended to commemorate a 1991 incident in Dili, the capital of East
Timor, in which, the group said, 270 people were killed. The request was denied by Robert
Adamenko, the director of the Transportation Department's Office of Special Events.
In a letter, Adamenko cited department rules that prohibit streets from being renamed
to promote products, commercial entities, political parties or political candidates. He
cited the same rules in denying a second request, submitted in March, to rename the same
corners "Free East Timor."
Those signs were requested to be in place for an event on July 17 marking the 23d
anniversary of Indonesia's annexation of East Timor. Mark Patterson, a Transportation
Department spokesman, said that Adamenko had reviewed the request and denied it.
"They didn't fit our criteria," he said.
But the group said the city had previously permitted several streets to be renamed in
support of political causes or to honor people in a manner that would send a clear
political message. The examples cited by the East Timor Action Network in its lawsuits
include Mayor Rudolph W. Giuliani's decision in 1996 supporting renaming the intersection
of Lexington Avenue and East 38th Street, near the Cuban Mission to the United Nations, in
honor of Brothers to the Rescue, the Cuban exile group that advocates the overthrow of
Fidel Castro.
In 1989, Mayor Edward I. Koch temporarily renamed a corner outside the Chinese
Consulate at 12th Avenue and 42d Street in honor of Tiananmen Square, to express support
for the demonstration that shook Beijing. Other politically sensitive street renamings
have included Joe Doherty Corner, established at Park Row and Pearl Street outside the
Metropolitan Correctional Center to honor a member of the Irish Republican Army who was
being held there while fighting extradition, and the dedication of a part of East 70th
Street as United Jerusalem Place in support of Israeli sovereignty over that city.
In the lawsuit, the East Timor Action Network says it does not support any particular
political party. A referendum is scheduled in East Timor for Aug. 8; citizens will vote on
whether to accept a plan giving them autonomous status within Indonesia. The Indonesian
President, B. J. Habibie, said that if they rejected the plan, East Timor would be free to
become an independent nation.
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