KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, Afghanistan – Throughout history civilians have gotten caught in the cross-fires of war; an occurrence that has not fallen short as NATO forces continue to suppress the Taliban.
Afghans come to Kandahar and other military bases to file claims to compensate for what was lost – a shepherd's sheep, a family's home – and in the worst case scenario, a human life.
Vying for space on the Slovak's cammo-netted break room porch, distressed Afghans share their stories with Chief Warrant Officer 3 Mike Fliegel, a legal administrator and Joint Sustainment Command-Afghanistan claims investigator.
"My brother and nephew were killed in an airstrike six months ago," a claimant recently explained to Fliegel.
"What is the value you are claiming?" Fliegel asked with a linguist's assistance. "I know it's hard, but I have to place a number here."
The claimant requested the maximum compensation of $10,000 for his claim and was told to come back in two weeks after a review of his case. In Afghanistan, one of the world's most impoverished countries, that amount exceeds the salary of an average worker by 20 years.
"We're not going to pay them for fighting Americans and we're not going to pay them for being suicide bombers," Fliegel said between taking claims. "Quite often there is no intel. We pay claims that can be validated and deny the others. Many times there's either no proof of an occurrence, or proof that the Americans did it, and we're not going to pay for everyone else."
Fliegel said every case proceeds with a series of questions – How did this happen? What were they doing at the time? Why were they there? – And then that information has to be backed by documents from both the claimant and military intelligence sources.
"I'm here to claim the loss of two raisin factories, two houses and two people," another Afghan recently claimed to Fliegel.
"This is not the U.S. They don't have death certificates or proof of places and times," Fliegel explained as a complicating factor to his investigations. "Sometimes, the American troops will write down acknowledgement of the incident and sign it, but they can't always stop in the middle of a firefight. This is a war and people are dying out there."
Fliegel made it clear that this is not an admission of liability due to the circumstances of war.
However, paying claims help quell the temperaments of loss and maintain good graces with the Afghan people.
Claims are divided into two categories: The Commander's Emergency Relief Program for combat related losses; and the Foreign Claims Act for non-combat related losses. The JSC-A, one of multiple NATO claims providers in Afghanistan, has approved 38 CERP claims and 12 FCA claims in the past six months.
| Date Taken: | 05.02.2010 |
| Date Posted: | 05.02.2010 04:49 |
| Story ID: | 48997 |
| Location: | KANDAHAR AIRFIELD, AF |
| Web Views: | 617 |
| Downloads: | 582 |
This work, NATO Settles Afghan Losses, by SGT Jason Adolphson, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
