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Georgian tanks approach the mutinous Mukhrovani army base where they put down a rebellion against the government and arrested the base leader - Source: Reuters -
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Georgia said it put down a mutiny at a military base and accused
Moscow of trying to foment a wider rebellion on the eve of NATO war
games in the former Soviet republic.
Russia, which fought a war with neighbouring Georgia last year,
denied involvement and said President Mikheil Saakashvili was
trying to shift the blame for his domestic problems.
Georgia's opposition said the incident was a show to deflect
attention from weeks of street protests against the
president.
About three hours after news broke of a military uprising, around
30 tanks and armoured personnel carriers entered the tank base 19
km from Tbilisi, followed later by Saakashvili and the defence and
interior ministers.
It was not clear how many of the 500 soldiers at the base were
involved, but their commander was arrested and police said several
other former military officers were being investigated.
A security source said 38 officers were being questioned.
Saakashvili called the rebellion at the Mukhrovani base a serious
threat aimed at disrupting month-long NATO military exercises, due
to begin on Thursday at a former Russian air force base several
kilometres from Mukhrovani.
Russia has condemned the planned exercises as an attempt at
muscle-flexing.
A senior Georgian security official said the exercises might be
postponed for several days.
Earlier, Russia's Interfax news agency said Mukhrovani base
commander Mamuka Gorgishvili had made a statement criticising
Saakashvili's government but pledging not to intervene by force in
the stand-off on the streets between opposition supporters and the
authorities.
"One cannot look calmly at the process of the country falling
apart, at the ongoing confrontation. But our tank unit will not
resort to any aggressive actions," the agency quoted Gorgishvili as
saying.
Pentagon: Isolated incident
Defence Minister David Sikharulidze told Rustavi 2 television the
rebellion was also an attempt at a military coup.
Authorities later distanced themselves from the term 'coup',
saying the main aim was to disrupt the NATO exercises.
A spokesman for the US Pentagon said the mutiny appeared to be a
fairly isolated incident at this point.
Saakashvili accused the plotters of links to Moscow and demanded
neighbouring Russia refrain from provocations.
Russia said the Georgian accusations were insane.
"Today what is happening is what we have always feared - the
Georgian leadership are trying to shift their domestic problems on
to Russia," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Grigory Karasin told
reporters.
"Instead of dialogue inside the country, the Georgian leadership is
trying to accuse Russia of totally insane things."
Military experts in Tbilisi suggested the rebellion could be linked
with plans to use troops to end opposition road blocks paralysing
Tbilisi, with some officers refusing to participate.
"This chimes with what we are hearing from military sources," a
senior Western diplomat said.
Georgia lost a brief war against neighbouring Russia last August
when Russia crushed in days a Georgian assault on the rebel
pro-Moscow region of South Ossetia.
Conflict over South Ossetia and another breakaway region,
Abkhazia, destabilised Georgia in the early 1990s.
The August war slammed the brakes on Georgia's bid for membership
of NATO, which the Kremlin fiercely opposes as an encroachment on
its traditional sphere of influence.
It has also increased pressure on Saakashvili.
Ties between Russia and NATO have come under new strain over the
exercises and the expulsion last week of two Russian diplomats
accredited at Moscow's mission to NATO in Belgium.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has dropped plans to attend
a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council this month in protest at the
expulsion. NATO said it regretted Moscow's decision and hoped a new
date would soon be agreed for the talks.
Exercises in a madhouse
The mutiny had little impact on financial markets. Georgian assets
are little traded and investors have been sceptical in the past of
official statements until facts were clear.
Fitch ratings agency said it would likely cut Georgia's B+ debt
rating if political instability continued.
Russia's NATO envoy Dmitry Rogozin said NATO would be better off
holding its exercises in a madhouse since Georgia's military cannot
properly receive their colleagues because they are rioting against
their own president.
The NATO exercises from May 6 to June 3, involving around 1,000
soldiers are intended as a gesture of solidarity for Georgia, which
sits at the heart of a region crucial for energy transit from the
Caspian Sea to Europe.
They are due to take place around 70 km from the nearest Russian
troop positions in breakaway South Ossetia.
Opposition protesters blocking streets in Tbilisi are demanding
Saakadhvili resign over his record on democracy and the war, and
say they will broaden street blockades to the main east-west
highway and entrances to the capital.
"It's very clear the government just wanted to transfer attention
to this (mutiny) from the protests," said opposition Conservatives
leader Kakha Kukava.
