TBILISI. March 31 (Interfax-AVN) - Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze has denounced the March 24 seizure of a military unit in Tbilisi by former National Guard servicemen "as a criminal sortie."
Shevardnadze told National radio on Monday that this operation was masterminded by former servicemen who worked as guards for former Georgian leaders and served in the National Guard. "These people have no links to the organization of military veterans and they were guided by purely criminal motives - trying to return the country to chaos and impunity," the president said.
Shevardnadze said that he personally oversaw the operation to neutralize the criminal group.
The president recalled that two years ago, a similar incident took place in the Mukhrovani battalion near Tbilisi. However, whereas the participants in that mutiny were pardoned, the people involved in the recent incident will be held responsible for their actions.
In the early hours of March 24, several dozen former servicemen seized a Tbilisi military unit, which was in the stage of being formed, and took three tanks and an armored personnel carrier from their hangar.
Special operations units of the Georgian Defense Ministry surrounded the military unit and demanded that the captors surrender. Fifteen of those who took part in the incident were detained.