The Georgian Mutiny That Wasn’t

May 6, 2009

The New York Times gives us the official version of a mutiny in Georgia:

According to the Georgian account, 25 miles from Tbilisi, the capital, government forces during the day surrounded a tank battalion whose leaders were planning the uprising. A few hours later, most of the unit’s 500 soldiers surrendered, and several of their commanders were detained.

President Mikheil Saakashvili said Russia was hoping to derail the NATO exercises, which he called a “symbolic event.”

Saakashvili is of course a notorious liar and what really happened is much different.

Since April 9 the opposition to Saakashvili has launched daily protests and mass rallies against Saakashvili, accusing him, rightly, to have launched last years disastrous little war against South Ossetia. They also accuse the state run media of unfair reporting and the interior ministry of letting it goons pick out and brutalize demonstrators.

The opposition planned and announced to temporarily blockade the east-west main highway of Georgia beginning yesterday afternoon.

Then yesterday morning the commander of a battalion stationed near the planned protest site, Col. Gorgiashvili, contacted the media:

At about 11:40am on May 5, the Georgian news agency, InterPressNews, posted on its website a brief news with quotes of Col. Gorgiashvili in which the latter indicates that his unit’s move was related with the ongoing protest rallies in Tbilisi, but it was not possible to identify exact motives behind Col. Gorgiashvili based on this report.

“It’s impossible to look indifferently at the process, while the country is collapsing… We can’t stand this confrontation any more; but there will not be any aggressive moves because of that,” InterPressNews reported quoting Col. Gorgiashvili. He also added: “The tank unit remains on high alert and it does not plan to go away from here.”

“We were not intending to make this statement, but the situation has become very tense and is now deadlocked. I see the threat that confrontation may take place with use of arms,” the news agency quoted Col. Gorgiashvili.

The reaction to the Colonel's statement from Saakashvili's government was immediate:

At noon Shota Utiashvili, head of the Interior Ministry’s information and analytical department, convened a press conference and said that the Georgian law enforcement agencies had uncovered plot to stage a mutiny in the Georgian army.

…
After that news conference, Defense Minister, Davit Sikharulidze, said that a tank battalion at a military unit in Mukhrovani “has announced about disobedience” and staged a mutiny.

Over the afternoon Col. Gorgiashvili and a few other military officers got arrested and Saakashvili accused them of plotting to overthrow him with the help of Russia.

The time line and the Colonel's statement make it clear that the event was not what Saakashvili says. Instead it appears that Saakashvili ordered the battalion to prepare to violently break up the protests and the battalion commander refused to do so, told his troops to stay down and contacted the media.

This was indeed a mutiny but not one to overthrow Saakashvili . This was the rejection of an illegal order that would have started a civil war.

In the afternoon the western friendly opposition suspended the planned highway blockade and accused Saakashvili of playing foul:

[Conservative Party leader Zviad] Dzidziguri announced on May 5 that the opposition would not proceed with the planned blockade of highways leading to Tbilisi, Caucasus Press reported. He said they will wait for two-three days until the reports of the coup are "clarified." He went on to accuse Saakashvili of "using the army for political purposes, to obstruct the planned blocking of the highways." He said the opposition does not believe "for one moment" the claims of Russian involvement in the coup.

This had nothing to do with Russia, a coup or the planned NATO war games. Instead an army battalion commander refused to take sides in the interior political conflict.

The Colonel deserves a promotion and Saakashvili some years in hell.

Posted by b on May 6, 2009 at 07:27 UTC | Permalink

Comments

Wow. Thanks for putting this up here, b.
And i should also add — as i failed to do in the other thread — a congrats for your page count.
I have been here for years, lurking, and have always much appreciated both your efforts and the company of this community.

Posted by: china_hand2 | May 6 2009 10:10 utc | 1

Like china_hand2 I’ve been a quiet but appreciative reader. When this news story broke I new right away where to look for info on what was *really* going on…
…MoA
Thanks for taking the time to maintain such a great site.

Posted by: Maff | May 6 2009 13:24 utc | 2

b, again, ahead, thanks

Posted by: remembereringgiap | May 6 2009 13:30 utc | 3

b strikes again. the one man truth brigade, to the rescue!

Posted by: annie | May 6 2009 14:28 utc | 4

I think that Saaki being a notorious liar has something to do with the fact that he receives loads of support from both the US and Israel.

Posted by: Cynthia | May 6 2009 14:43 utc | 5

Coinciding with Saakashvili’s cries of wolf…
WASHINGTON (AFP) — Thirty-five years being hunted to near extinction, the gray wolf on Monday was taken off the US list of endangered species, clearing the way for it to be hunted again in most states.
Wheels within wheels, man.

Posted by: biklett | May 6 2009 16:25 utc | 6

More about the disobedience, but not a word what order was rejected. Saakashvili’s hand cut that out from the video testimony. Guess why …:

In the video footage five out of eight officers from the Mukhrovani-based military unit say that the battalion commander, Col. Mamuka Gorgiashvili, told the servicemen in the morning of May 5 that he was “declaring disobedience to the authorities.” All five officers – Lieutenant Khvicha Sadagashvili; Vice-Colonel Zaza Okropiridze; Major Giorgi Samadashvili; Lieutenant Kakhaber Gogichaishvili and Lieutenant Kakhaber Jolbordi – repeated it in their recorded testimonies.
It, however, was not clear from the footage whether the battalion commander told the servicemen reasons behind “declaring disobedience.” It has become a reason for some opposition politicians to demand from the Interior Ministry to make the officers’ testimonies public in full.
“The footage cuts and jumps to other frame when officers are saying that the battalion commander was telling the servicemen that he declared disobedience to the authorities,” Davit Berdzenishvili of the opposition Republican Party, part of Alliance for Georgia, told protesters outside the Parliament.
“So it remains unclear what kind of orders the battalion commander was disobeying… We need to know what these officers are saying. Why the video is edited and cut in very same moment when the officers are speaking about disobedience; we should know why the commander was declaring disobedience, so the authorities should show this part of the officers’ recorded testimonies in full; we should know exactly whether it was really a mutiny or it was an imitations of mutiny,” he added.

Posted by: b | May 6 2009 17:17 utc | 7

And on Saakashvili’s media manipulation:

In a joint statement to the management, a group of Imedi TV employees expressed protest over the television station’s editorial policy saying that its news service was not covering ongoing developments in the country objectively, the Georgian daily Rezonansi, reported on May 5.
…
According to the statement, the television station’s management “blocked” to air statement by Patriarch of Georgian Orthodox Church, Ilia II, on April 8, on the eve of launch of protest rallies, in which he called on the Georgian army not to use force against protesters. The Imedi TV employees’ statement says that two journalists of the television stations decided to quit in protest after the Patriarch’s remarks were censored.
In the statement employees also complain about the editorial policy of not covering cases of attacks on opposition activists, “while the video recordings released by the Interior Ministry are showed regularly, which only aims at discrediting the protesters.”

Imedi TV once was a real news station:

The station carried statements by opposition leaders and broadcast footage of police breaking up protests during the 2007 November Georgian demonstrations and went off air after riot police burst into their offices on November 7, 2007.[1]
The Georgian National Communications Commission (GNCC) has suspended Imedi TV’s broadcast license for a three month period citing violation of law on broadcasting by the television station.

but since then it has been sold and resold in secret and it is alleged (likely) that Saakashvili’s government has now a hand in it.

Posted by: b | May 6 2009 17:27 utc | 8

to b or not to b that is the question…
.. and I answer, to b!!!!
Thanks for the informative post.

Posted by: Anthony | May 6 2009 20:32 utc | 9

Great analysis,b. Thank you.
I found this quote from a State Department spokesman last month regarding the ongoing protests against Sakashvili:
“State Department Spokesman Richard Aker told reporters Friday that the U.S. had no stance on whether Saakashvili, (whom the U.S. vigorously supported during the conflict with Russia last July over breakaway provinces South Ossetia and Abkhazia) should step down. Aker said any question of political leadership was an “internal Georgian matter” and stated that the U.S. supports the right to peaceful public protest.”
What a great change – if this is truly the U.S. Government’s position and not just windowdressing for the masses.
article

Posted by: Maxcrat | May 7 2009 0:41 utc | 10

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