CIS may send force to Tajikistan: As factions battle for ascendancy, Hugh Pope joins the 'losers in this war' at a bridge in Kizilkala in Tajikistan

BISHKEK (Reuter) - The Commonwealth of Independent States decided at a summit yesterday to send a Kyrgyz peace-keeping force to Tajikistan if local leaders formally agreed, an official said. But a spokesman for the Tajik leadership said the troops would be dispatched only if the Central Asian republic's parliament invites them.

The question of how to quell Tajikistan's ethnic and clan fighting, which threatens to convulse the whole region, was included on the summit agenda at the request of the country's representatives.