president," they declare, hopefully.

The region's drab capital, Tskhinvali, looks much as it did in Soviet times, and a referendum on independence a week ago delivered a Soviet-style result: 99 per cent voted to leave Georgia forever.

Next to one polling station on Lenin Street is a cemetery full of war graves. "We have cried so much, so many people have died," one woman says. "How can we forgive and be part of Georgia? Never! Let them ask those buried here if they want to be part of Georgia."

But only a few miles away, behind a Georgian army checkpoint, are ethnic Georgian villages which the South Ossetian authorities do not control. There they held another referendum and voted emphatically for a new federal state with Georgia. "This is our land," one man insisted. "South Ossetia cannot be independent because it has never

existed. It is part of Georgia."

Both sides also voted in presidential elections, so now this mountainous enclave with a population of only around 70,000 has two 'presidents' with two opposing policies: the pro-Russian Eduard Kokoity, and the pro-Georgian Dmitri Sanakoyev.

No country, not even Russia, recognises South Ossetia as an independent state. But the polls have inflamed passions - and while the streets are full of men with guns, what appears to be an absurd situation could easily escalate into violence.

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