Bangladesh has opposed the putting up of an honorary street sign for ex-president Ziaur Rahman on North Clark Street in Chicago’s Rogers Park, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Ambassador Mohammad Ziauddin said Zia was unfit to be given a street sign in his honour, citing what he said was his complicity in the 1975 assassination of then President Sheikh Mujib Rahman and members of his family during a coup.
It is Bangladesh’s official government position to oppose the Chicago recognition for Ziaur Rahman, Ziauddin said.
“We believe the United States has a very strong record on the rule of law, human rights and good governance,” the ambassador said. “Ziaur Rahman ruled Bangladesh as a tyrant and an oppressor, and this honour stands in opposition to those values.”
The request to put up a pair of familiar brown street signs on North Clark Street in Rogers Park sailed through the Chicago City Council, joining the 1,500 other honorary roadways aldermen have approved for 50 years.
When 49th Ward Alderman Joe Moore backed the street naming on behalf of a group of residents, including one who donated $1,000 to his campaign fund, he thought he was engaging in the kind of retail politics that is a Chicago alderman’s stock in trade.
But Moore said he got a call from Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s office saying the US State Department had been contacted by the Bangladeshi ambassador, who objected to the honour.
Moore went ahead and put up the signs on the 6600 and 6800 blocks of North Clark despite the State Department request.
“Bangladeshi politics is pretty rough and tumble,” Moore said. On balance, he decided, Ziaur Rahman seemed like “one of the good guys.”
Meanwhile, the Bangladesh Embassy has sent letters to cities across the US to try to enlighten mayors about Ziaur Rahman so he does not receive additional recognition of the kind he is getting in Chicago, Ziauddin said.
Moore noted, since 1997 part of Devon Avenue in the 50th Ward has had the honorary name “Sheikh Mujib Way” in honour of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
“So the other side has its recognition,” the alderman said.
Earlier, a group of Bangladeshi citizens sued, seeking to have the Ziaur Rahman sign pulled down on the grounds he does not deserve the honour.
Their lawyer, Al-Haroon Husain, dismissed Moore’s argument that he’s equalising the Bangladeshi political calculus on Chicago streets. “You should consider the merits of the individual...It should not be a question based on a political party.”
For some in Rogers Park, seeing Ziaur Rahman so honoured is offensive, Husain said. “It would be like a Russian walking down the street and being confronted with ‘Honorary Joseph Stalin Way.’ You do not want to see that.”
On Tuesday, a judge ruled in the city’s favor and dismissed the lawsuit, but Husain said his clients were considering refiling it.
