Sliding scale for Afghan civilians killed by Nato troops

KABUL: In Afghanistan, if Nato forces kill one of your family, it is better in terms of money if they come from Germany or Italy than the US or Britain.

In the cold calculation of how much to pay for victims of the decade-old war, British forces have doled out as little as $210 (R1 595), while German forces have paid as much as $25 000, according to a study by the human rights NGO CIVIC.

Civilian casualties caused by Nato forces hunting insur- gents are a major source of friction between the Afghan government and its Western backers – all the more so after a lone US soldier gunned down 16 Afghan villagers.

“They have to ask themselves the question, how much is one’s life worth?

“You can’t put a price on it,” Rafi Nabi, 33, an unemployed Afghan said.

“If one were to kill an American and offer to compensate their death with money, they wouldn’t accept it.”

It was unclear if the US intends to pay reparations to the families of 16 people suspected to have been killed by the US staff sergeant in Kandahar province, the traditional Taliban stronghold..

The US usually pays up to $2 500 for civilians killed in lawful operations such as air strikes, according to an investigation by CIVIC.

“The shooter clearly violated the laws of war, human rights law and the US military code of justice. In these type of situations, we call for accountability and justice as well as compensation for harm done,” Trevor Keck, an investigator with CIVIC, said.

British pay as little as $210, Germans as much as $25 000

British forces paid out $210 to $7 000 while German troops provided $20 000 in cash and a car worth $5 000 after shooting three people at a checkpoint in 2008, the report said.

In 2009, Italy disbursed $13 500 to the family of a 14- year-old girl who was killed.

A series of incidents over the past month, including the burning of Qur’ans at a Nato base and the massacre in southern Afghanistan, have stirred debate about the withdrawal timetable for foreign troops, with some asking for a faster pullout.

The blunders have also heightened tensions between Kabul and Washington at a time when the US is in delicate talks with Afghanistan over its future presence after the big pull out at the end of 2014.

CIVIC found that compensation payments plus an apology were key to lowering hostility toward foreign troops in Afghanistan.

There is no standard mechanism for Afghans to report civilian casualties, much less seek compensation.

Rules often require even illiterate villagers to decipher which unit came to their home and then go to its main base – sometimes far away.

As the war enters its 11th year, security forces battling the militants killed 410 civilians in 2011, a drop of 4 percent from 2010, the UN said, with the total number killed last year exceeding 3 000.