Georgian soldiers end mutiny

Soldiers set up roadblocks outside the rebel base

About 1,000 soldiers who occupied a military base near the Georgian capital Tbilisi have agreed to end their mutiny after President Eduard Shevardnadze said he would address poor pay and conditions.

The soldiers serve practically barefoot, the service conditions are very poor - officers haven't received their salaries for more than a year

Colonel Georgy Krialashvili

Mr Shevardnadze held a two-hour meeting with the leader of the rebel soldiers late on Friday evening.

They agreed to return to barracks after the president promised that they would not be prosecuted for their action.

Security in Tbilisi had been tight since the fully-armed soldiers seized the base, saying they wanted to expose the economic hardship faced by ordinary troops.

The army was put on high alert as a government minister described the mutiny as an "attempted coup d'etat".

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

Economic woes

But the mutineers' leader said the grievances were economic, not political.

"I feel ashamed and I can't look into the eyes of my soldiers and officers," said Colonel Georgy Krialashvili, commander of the mutinous battalion.

"The soldiers serve practically barefoot, the service conditions are very poor. Officers haven't received their salaries for more than a year."

President Shevardnadze said that the complaints would be investigated.

"Had they had normal living conditions, this incident would not have occurred," he said.

"Therefore, we, too, are shouldering moral responsibility."

Tuberculosis

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, on Friday morning.

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.

Eduard Shevardnadze: Survivor of numerous attempted coups

An initial battalion of 400 men was joined by interior ministry troops, swelling the number of soldiers protesting to about 1,000.

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

"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.