Georgian soldiers in mutiny over pay

Georgian soldiers last took action to quell a mutiny in 1998

A battalion of 400 troops has seized a military base outside the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, to protest about pay and conditions in the armed forces.

The army was put on high alert as a government minister described the mutiny as an "attempted coup d'etat", but President Eduard Shevardnadze later offered to meet the soldiers to hear their grievances.

He promised that they would not be arrested if they put down their arms.

The battalion of National Guardsmen was on a military exercise in armed vehicles when it broke away and seized an interior ministry base at Mukhrovani, 25km (15 miles) east of the capital.

Military 'adventure'

It's reported that they won the support of several hundred troops on the base.

The incident has all the signs of a military political adventure which could eventually aim at an attempted military coup

Zurab Zhvania, chairman of parliament

According to the chairman of the Georgian parliament, Zurab Zhvania, the mutineers opened fire on the car of the military prosecutor, Badri Bitsadze, when he arrived for negotiations.

"We are dealing with a serious armed crime, a military crime," Mr Zhvania told Georgian television, adding that the soldiers had made some political demands.

"The incident has all the signs of a military political adventure which could eventually aim at an attempted military coup."

However, a senior member of parliament who attended negotiations between the soldiers and Defence Minister David Tevzadze said they were not preparing to march on Tbilisi to launch a coup d'etat.

"This is just a protest action," he said.

Tuberculosis

In televised comments, one of the mutinying soldiers said they had no other way of drawing attention to their problems.

Eduard Shevardnadze: Survivor of numerous attempted coups

"They (the authorities) have stuffed their pockets on the blood of the people," he said.

The wife of one of the soldiers said the troops had not been paid for 13 months, and were forced to earn small amounts of money by giving blood.

She added that last month one soldier in the battalion had died from tuberculosis.

The Georgian leader - a former Soviet foreign minister - has survived numerous attempted coups and assassinations.

The last mutiny, which lasted one day, was staged in the west of the country in 1998.