PNG mutiny ends with one shot fired

The rebellion was more of an industrial dispute than a grab for power

PORT MORESBY, Papua New Guinea (Reuters) -- A 15-day mutiny by Papua New Guinea soldiers worried about job cuts ended at the weekend with one shot fired when loyal troops launched a surprise raid.

"Only one round was fired and no one was hurt," PNG Defence Force Chief of Staff Colonel Tom Ur told Reuters on Monday.

"The renegade soldiers thought we would raid on Friday night so they stayed on guard all night and when fatigue set in on Saturday we surprised them," Ur said.

Officials initially said about 45 rebel soldiers seized control of Moem Barracks in the north of the country on March 9 to protest against government plans to retrench 1,500 soldiers as part of tough economic reforms.

But Ur said on Monday only 13 would now likely be charged with mutiny. Thirty reinforcements were being sent from the capital Port Moresby on Monday to help ensure control of the barracks, he said.

Moem Barracks, outside the north-coast town of Wewak and one of the country's main barracks, some 800 km (500 miles) from the capital Port Moresby, houses some of the country's elite troops.

The rebel soldiers broke into the armory on March 9 and burned down two buildings, including the communications center, which cut the barracks off from the rest of the country.

But unlike other mutinies which have hit Papua New Guinea, one leading to the downfall of the government in 1997, the Moem rebellion was more of an industrial dispute than a grab for power, with rebels allowing loyal troops and families to go about their daily lives in the barracks unhindered.

Papua New Guinea last year said it would retrench 2,000 soldiers, about half the force, as part of tough financial cutbacks aimed at rescuing the country's troubled economy.

A mutiny in the country's Murray Barracks defense headquarters in the center of Port Moresby in March last year forced the government to postpone its cutback plan, and the government later reduced the number of soldiers to be laid off to 1,500.

The first batch of retrenchments began this month.

Despite the rugged South Pacific country's wealth of natural resources, including oil, gold and copper, most of Papua New Guinea's 4.7 million people live subsistence lives in small jungle villages.