Marines finish paying residents for war damage
By: DARRIN MORTENSON - Staff Writer | ∞
Marine Staff Sgt. Chris Tompkins, 29, from Penobscot, Maine, hands an Iraqi crisp one hundred dollar bills on the final day of solatia payments by the Marines of the 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit for injuries and damaged property incurred during the fighting between the Marines and the local militia during August in Najaf, Iraq on Monday, February 7, 2005.
Hayne Palmour IV
Order a copy of this photo
Visit our Photo Gallery
NAJAF, Iraq ---- Marines who appear to have tamed the once-volatile Shiite holy city of Najaf finished handing out the last of some 16,000 payments Monday to local families for damages, injury and deaths that occurred during brutal fighting in August.
The Camp Pendleton-based 11th Marine Expeditionary Unit, a 2,000-member unit that began returning to North County in waves on Sunday, has paid nearly $10 million in condolence payments since the Marines clashed with Shiite militia in August, officials said.
For several months, the unit has paid cash to compensate Iraqis for deaths, injuries or property damage that resulted from weeks of brutal fighting that ravaged this city of 600,000 last summer. The payments, which have been used in past wars, are known as solatia.
Monday's crowd was small compared to the thousands that have clogged the designated downtown lot at many of the 16 other Monday payment sites, leading many Marines to believe they have exhausted nearly all of the legitimate claims and can depart next week feeling like they finished the job.
"I turned a lot of people away today," said Carlsbad native Capt. Kimberly Johnson, who said she has processed hundreds of property damage claims over the last few months. She said most of the claims have already been paid to those who had their cases in order with proof of damage, receipts and a file certified with the local office of human rights.
"A lot of these last ones have been through here before and are probably just making one last attempt to get something," she said. "But I don't blame them. Most of them probably don't have much."
Monday's crowd was orderly and quiet as the Iraqis huddled against the cold early morning breeze outside the payment area, which was guarded by Marines. Iraqis claiming damage were screened for identification, searched for weapons by Iraqi police and sent into a series of lines to obtain their files and see the Marine officers who judged each case.
Newly arriving Army National Guard troops, who will take over for the Marines in Najaf and several other southern Iraqi cities next week, watched and learned from Army civil affairs officers, whose time in the region will overlap that of the Marines and National Guard.
"When we did this two months ago, it would be people all the way out to the road," said Marine Sgt. Emanual Patida, 25, pointing across a football field-sized dirt lot where a couple of hundred people, many of them police, milled around in the cold morning air. "It was insane. But this is nice."
Patida said he wishes more people at home could see how he and the other Marines have worked from before sunrise often until long after dark to pay locals for damages and to try to make things right after the August battle in which homes were damaged and civilians --- along with seven Marines from the expeditionary unit ---- were killed. The unit has spent months rebuilding the city and repaying civilians for damage that occurred during the fighting.
"All the people back home think it's fighting, fighting, fighting," he said. "But since August, this is what we've been doing ---- right here."
Cpl. Irene Chan, 20, who entered information into a computer database for many of the claims, said that while the program was sometimes difficult to administer it was probably one of the Marines' best weapons to win over locals.
"Sure, we turned a lot of people away, but about 85 percent of the people who came through here walked away happy," she said, rolling from boot heel to boot toe as she rattled off the Marines' accomplishments.
"It felt really great ---- gave them a little bit of hope and faith," Chan said.
"We haven't had to go through what they've gone through. Most of them are poor. It's a whole different environment, a whole different upbringing," she added. "We probably can't even imagine."
Nearby, a man cautiously pulled his pants down to his groin to show a Navy medic a scar from a bullet wound in his upper leg. It was new, possibly from the August battle, the female medic said, and the man would be paid.
Soon, at the same table, a Shiite cleric displayed photos of battle-damaged buildings attached to a mosque. An Army civil affairs officer awarded him the maximum payment ---- $2,500 ---- and told him to follow up with the Najaf governor for more after the Marines leave.
At another table, an Arabic-speaking translator outsmarted a woman with a fraudulent death claim. She was sent away without protest as the Marines chuckled at the audacity of the claim.
Col. Anthony Haslam, the top Marine commander in the region, said that only about 400 claims were made on Monday, the final day of the death and damage payments.
The Marines said that the widely popular weekly payments were one of the major success stories of Najaf, which is now known as one of the most peaceful major cities in Iraq.
But Marines said only one other military unit has attempted to study the program with an eye to replicating its success in other parts of war-ravaged Iraq.
Army Maj. Jeff Mrochek, one of the civil affairs officers who helped develop and run the payment program in Najaf, said commanders in Fallujah ---- knowing they would probably inflict major property damage and civilian casualties before the offensive on that city in November ---- have been the only takers so far.
Another Army officer, former Special Forces operator Maj. Paul O'Leary, said the military learns and moves slowly, even during wartime.
"If we could only do in the rest of the country what we've done in Najaf," he said rhetorically Monday.
"I admit, this is a buy-off," he said. "But it's a lot cheaper than war, and you get a lot more people on your side this way. But it takes six months or a year for things like this to work their way through the system, and years to become doctrine. I mean, we're still learning lessons from Vietnam."
Contact staff writer Darrin Mortenson at dmortenson@nctimes.com.
More Stories
Advertisement
First name only. Comments including last names, contact addresses, e-mail addresses or phone numbers will be deleted. Attempts to misrepresent your identity or impersonate any person will not be approved. All comments are screened before they appear online, so please keep them brief. Comments reflect the views of those commenting and not necessarily those of the North County Times or its staff writers. Click here to view additional comment policies.
Today's Stories
Advertisement