AFGHANISTAN:Britain pays out £700,000 in compensation to civilian casualties in Afghanistan

By Sean Rayment
Telegraph

Details obtained under the Freedom of Information Act reveal that between April 2006 to October 2008, the British government made 858 ex-gratia payment to Afghan civilians who either had family members killed or injured in fighting between the Taliban and British troops or whose property had been damaged.

A total of £90,000 has been paid to Afghans who have been injured or the families of those killed in fighting in Helmand.

In 2006 and again in 2007, £6,000 was paid to the family of two “locally employed” men who were killed during British operations against the Taliban. Another £7,000 was paid out “in relation to the death and injury of Afghan National Police Personnel”.

The documents also disclose that the Ministry of Defence does not keep records of the numbers of Afghan men, women and children killed or injured during fighting between Nato forces and the Taliban.

In the documents, the MoD states that the majority of the payment are not regarded as compensation but as “ex-gratia payments to provide assistance to local Nationals with costs arising from damage, loss and injury”.

All claims are made by the Theatre Claims Office in Afghanistan and are usually paid in US dollars. Most of the payments have to be made in secret to prevent the Taliban from extorting money from those Afghans being compensated.

The largest number of payouts were made for claims to property which were either damaged during combat or intentionally destroyed by the British forces for operational reasons in the last two years.

In 2006, there were 35 cases of property damage, amounting to £120,000. The greatest single payment was for £61,000 paid to the owners of a clinic, which was damaged during a battle with the Taliban.

The following year, as the war in Helmand intensified, there were 332 cases of property damage which cost a total of £271,000. The greatest single payment was for £39,000 which was paid to the owners of a building next to a British military compound which was demolished for security reasons.

Since April 2008, there have been a total of 440 payouts for property damage amounting to £199,000, even though the British Army has conducted fewer large scale operations in Helmand.

Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/3501081/Britain-pays-out-700000-in-compensation-to-civilian-casualties-in-Afghanistan.html