RIGA - Latvia has solemnly commemorated the hostage crisis in Beslan, Northern Ossetia, with an outpouring of flowers at the Russian Embassy and a planned benefit concert by a group of local musicians. Such gestures have recently sparked demands to rename a Riga street dedicated to Dzhokhar Dudayev, the former Chechen president who led the republic's first independence bid in 1994.
This, however, is not the first time that calls have been made to change the name of the street, which sits in a predominantly ethnic Russian neighborhood of Purvciems. The most recent of several attempts to do so followed the Moscow theater siege in 2002 that left some 160 dead.
Latvia honored Dudayev, who was killed in 1996, with a street under his name for his contributions to Estonian independence. The Soviet air force officer was stationed in Estonia in the 1980s and the subsequent breakup of the communist empire. When the January 1991 Soviet crackdown began in Vilnius 's leaving 14 deaths and over 700 wounded 's and then followed in Riga with the loss of six lives, Dudayev reportedly remained neutral, and even sympathized with Estonia's independence drive.
No such crackdown in Estonia occurred.
Riga is not alone in naming a street after Dudayev. Vilnius also have a street in honor of the Chechen leader who spent many years in the Baltics.
Indeed, the Baltic states have been some of the staunchest supporters of the Chechen struggle for autonomy, even hosting a pro-Chechen Web site as well as representative offices for years. (See story on Page 1.)
However after Beslan, where some 330 died - almost half of which were children - the cries for a name-change have become too loud to ignore. Riga Deputy Mayor Segejs Dolgopolovs asked for a new name, as did Mayor Gundars Bojars, who said the original decision to rename Cosmonaut Street as Dudayev was "incorrect."
Still, this could be a repeat of times past when Dolgopolovs also demanded a name-change.
Renaming the street has been a consistent goal of some Russian NGOs, as well as Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov. Opinion polls have shown that an overwhelming majority of Riga residents favor a change.
For their part, Russian authorities have made claims that Baltic mercenaries 's including a team of female snipers 's participated in the Chechen conflict.
