BATTLE ERUPTS IN CENTRAL TAJIKISTAN.

At least thirteen Internal Affairs troopers were killed, a minimum of ten were injured and some are missing in action as a result of clashes yesterday in Kofarnihon district, some twenty-five kilometers east of Dushanbe. The clashes began when a government patrol entered a village near the district center to arrest opposition supporters on criminal charges. Security Ministry reinforcements were rushed in, but were held off by opposition detachments arriving from nearby base camps, where they are confined under the peace agreements. UN military observers and government and opposition members of the National Reconciliation Commission are at the scene, trying to end the fighting or at least to localize it. (AP, Russian agencies, March 24)

Opposition casualties are not known, but experience suggests that it is the government troops who usually end up the losers in such incidents. Yesterday’s clash is the bloodiest since last year’s signing of peace agreements. Those have ended large-scale hostilities, but not tactical jockeying for local territorial advantages by both sides in advance of planned elections. The opposition has long been entrenched in Kofarnihon and other areas along the vital east-west highway. The government from time to time seeks to dislodge those opposition detachments, sometimes under the guise of conducting anti-crime operations. Both sides are interested in localizing such clashes when they erupt.

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