Head of the United Nations Peace-Building Support Office is convinced of the need  for a cessation of _______ in Liberia

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“I saw bodies lying on the streets, around ruined buildings, in cars”, said Lyudmila 
Ostayeva, 50, who had fled with her family to Dzhava, a village near the border with Russia. 
“It's impossible to count them now. There is hardly a single building left undamaged”. 
The confrontation between the two countries deepened in April when Nato promised 
that Georgia would be allowed to join — although no clear timetable was offered. The 
European Union was trying to secure a ceasefire in the pro-Russian enclave. The United 
States and the EU sent a joint delegation to the region in a bid to halt the fighting, while Nato 
called for an immediate end to the clashes and for direct talks between Russia and Georgia.
Any ceasefire would be unlikely to hold. Hours after President Mikheil Saakashvili of 
Georgia, a devoutly pro-Western leader, declared a unilateral ceasefire on Thursday night, 
his forces began an artillery barrage against Tskhinvali, the South Ossetian capital. The 
fighting broke out as much of the world's attention was focused on the start of the Olympic 
Games. Many leaders, including Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President 
George W Bush, were in Beijing watching the opening ceremony.
Mr. Putin declared: “War has started”. Victor Dolidze, Georgia's ambassador to the 
Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, said: “If this is not war, then I wonder 
what it is”. Mr. Dolidze told the OSCE's permanent council in Vienna that Russian forces had 
been bombing Georgian territory since the morning, according to a diplomat who attended 
the 45-minute meeting.
Vladimir Voronkov, Russia's representative, told the assembly that “the true story
is very different”. He accused the Georgian side of launching a massive attack in defiance
of diplomatic efforts. As the roar of warplanes and the explosion of heavy shells sounded 
outside Tskhinvali, Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, accused the Georgians
of driving people from their homes.
“We are receiving reports that a policy of ethnic cleansing was being conducted in 
villages in South Ossetia, the number of refugees is climbing, the panic is growing, people 
are trying to save their lives”, he said in televised remarks from the ministry. Georgia, which 
would be hugely outnumbered in an all-out confrontation with Russia, said that it had control 
of the capital, but there were reports of Russian tanks on the outskirts and that Georgian 
forces had started to retreat.
Georgia will withdraw 1 000 soldiers from its military contingent of around 2 000 troops in 
Iraq to help in the fighting against South Ossetian separatist rebels, a top Georgian official said.
Georgia has asked the US military to provide aircraft to move Georgian troops home 
from Iraq as fighting rages in Georgia's breakaway South Ossetia region, a US military 
official said Friday.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on Russia to withdraw its troops from 
Georgia.
“The United States calls for an immediate ceasefire to the armed conflict in Georgia's 
region of South Ossetia”, Rice said in a statement.
“We call on Russia to cease attacks on Georgia by aircraft and missiles, respect Georgia's 
territorial integrity, and withdraw its ground combat forces from Georgian soil”, she said.
The United States is working actively with its European allies to launch international 
mediation to end the crisis and senior US officials have spoken with the parties in the 
conflict, she added.
A spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana: “We repeat our message to all 

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