Kyrgyzstan's interim government has given security forces shoot-to-kill powers in a bid to stop ethnic fighting which has taken nearly 80 lives.
It also declared a partial mobilisation of the army to combat "destructive forces and criminal elements".
Thousands of ethnic Uzbeks have been fleeing what they say are ethnic Kyrgyz gangs in the southern city of Osh.
Almost 1,000 people were also hurt in the worst unrest since President Kurmanbek Bakiyev's overthrow in April.
Russia says it does not plan to intervene despite a Kyrgyz request.
And without international assistance there are fears the interim authorities in Kyrgyzstan may struggle to contain the conflict, the BBC's Rayhan Demytrie reports.
The south of Kyrgyzstan, an ex-Soviet Central Asian state of 5.5 million people, is home to an ethnic Uzbek minority of almost one million.
The latest violence has become the biggest challenge for the new government so far.
