The goodwill of a mutually agreed ceasefire over the hostilities in Georgia seems to be swiftly withering away, as Georgia filed an ethnic cleansing suit against Russia at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after Moscow achieved a crushing victory in the five-day war that killed hundreds of Ossetians and drove thousands of others from their homes.
The secretary of Georgia's Security Council, Kakha Lomaia said the Georgian ambassador to the Netherlands filed a lawsuit to the International Court of Justice "because of ethnic cleansing conducted in Georgia by Russia from 1993 to 2008."
The ICJ, based in Hague in the Netherlands, is empowered to rule on disputes between nations.
The alleged atrocities committed in South Ossetia have also been brought to the notice of the International Criminal Court (ICC), and its chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he might launch a preliminary investigation into the allegations.
With Russian jet planes continue to bomb civilian targets in the former Soviet republic despite an official declaration by the Russian President that his government has decided to end hostilities in Georgia, the United States urged Russia to stop military operations immediately.
A statement issued by U.S. Secretary of State Condolleezza Rice after a conference call with her counterparts of the G7 said the foreign ministers agreed to initiate international efforts to facilitate the withdrawal of forces from the zone of conflict.
"We can then look to the issue of how to resolve the longstanding frozen conflicts of South Ossetia and Abkhazia," Rice said after briefing President George W Bush on the ongoing diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis in Georgia.
Earlier, speaking at a joint news conference with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who is mediating between the two sides on a EU-sponsored peace proposal, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev insisted his forces would remain in South Ossetia and Abkhazia. "That has been the case and that will continue to be the case," Medvedev told reporters.
Russia wants a buffer zone around Georgia's breakaway regions and is demanding that Georgia guarantees never to use force in the regions again.
With his foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, Sarkozy is taking Russia's peace terms to Georgia.
Even while announcing a ceasefire after five days of intense fighting that saw heavy casualties, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sounded aggressive, saying that "The aggressor has been punished and suffered significant losses."
He also sent a warning note to the neighboring country, as he said that future Georgian attacks in the rebel region of South Ossetia should be "liquidated."
News of the ceasefire contributed to a continued decrease in the price of oil, with crude for September delivery closing down $1.44 at a new three-month closing low of $113.01 a barrel."
The acting Georgian ambassador to Britain, Georgei Badridze, was quoted as saying that Russian helicopter gunships hit civilian targets, including a hospital in the town of Gori and a minibus carrying civilians.
He said that the only way to prevent Russian aggression and safeguard Georgian democracy was for the West to allow Georgia to join NATO.
He sought the help of the international community to force the Russians leave Georgia.
Tuesday, Georgian authorities said Russia's air force made a second attempt to bomb the strategic Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline, a charge the Russians refuted.
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