A group of family members of victims of the September 11 terrorist attacks, outraged by city plans to move the commemoration ceremony, filed a request asking to hold the annual event at the site of the destroyed World Trade Center.
The coalition filed the request on Wednesday with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which owns the site. The agency says construction at the site would make a ceremony there unsafe, but family members plan to sue if they are denied.
"This is the place we have. A precedent has been set in letting us touch ground zero," said Diane Horning, a representative of one of the family groups.
Rosaleen Tallon, of Advocates for a 9/11 Fallen Heroes Memorial, said remains of people killed in the 2001 terror attack are still being found at the site. "How can we possibly not go there to memorialize these people?" she said. "It is still their resting place, and I want to be there."
The city has said that ground zero, now undergoing reconstruction, is not safe for the large annual gathering, and it plans to move the recitation of names to a nearby plaza.
Relatives of the victims of the 2001 terrorist attacks will have some access to the site - just not to the pit and not for a ceremony, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
"It's just not safe," Bloomberg said. "Listen, we've had enough tragedy on that site. Our first priority, No 1, is to make sure that everybody's safe, and nothing's going to get us off that."
Attorney Norman Siegel, who is representing the families, said that if the Port Authority rejects the permit, the families would consider a federal lawsuit on First Amendment grounds. He said the groups had gotten consultations on safety and security and that the site would be safe as long as the construction was halted on the day of the ceremony.
Port Authority spokesman Stephen Sigmund said construction would be stopped that day but the site still was not suitable for the ceremony.
Source: China Daily/agencies
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