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(回答先: 米海兵隊が犠牲者遺族に口止め料か／現在調査が進行中（ニューヨーク・デーリー・ニューズ） 投稿者 gataro 日時 2006 年 6 月 10 日 16:47:21)
5月8日付ボストン・グローブ紙によると、米軍の作戦行動によるイラク人死者や負傷者に対して支払われる「見舞金」の総額が2004年には500万ドルだったものが、翌2005年には2000万ドルに急上昇した。
「見舞金」は2003年に創設された司令官緊急対応プログラム、略してCERP（Commanders Emergency Response Program, or CERP）から支払われている。
記事の詳細については以下の英文記事を参照のこと。
Condolence payments to Iraqis soar
Military gave nearly $20m to families of civilians
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/06/08/condolence_payments_to_iraqis_soar/
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff | June 8, 2006
WASHINGTON -- The amount of cash the US military has paid to families of Iraqi civilians killed or maimed in operations involving American troops skyrocketed from just under $5 million in 2004 to almost $20 million last year, according to Pentagon financial data.
The dramatic spike in what's known as condolence payments -- distributed to Iraqi families whose loved ones were caught in US crossfire or victimized during US ground and air assaults -- suggests that American commanders made on-the-spot restitution far more frequently, according to congressional aides and officials familiar with a special fund at the disposal of military officers in Iraq.
Defense Department officials maintain that the payments -- which officials said range from a few hundred dollars for injuries such as a severed limb to $2,500 for the death of a relative -- mirror a local custom commonly known as ``solatia," in which families receive financial compensation for damages or human losses. They stressed that the payments shouldn't be seen as an admission of guilt or responsibility.
But amid reports that US Marines paid $2,500 per victim after dozens of civilians were killed on Nov. 19 in the town of Haditha -- killings now engulfed by allegations of a massacre -- the fourfold increase in condolence payments raises new questions about the extent to which Iraqi civilians have been the victims of US firepower.
The Haditha firefight is the focus of two US military investigations to determine if Marines, enraged by the death of a comrade from a roadside bomb, may have taken revenge by executing two dozen Iraqi civilians, including women and young children, and then tried to cover it up. In his first public comments about the killings, Marine Commandant Michael Hagee, the Corps' top general, acknowledged yesterday that the evidence being reviewed includes a set of photos of the victims taken by a Marine intelligence team immediately after the killings.
The payments to victims' families in Haditha are part of what is generally considered a common US military practice in Iraq. But Senator Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, is pushing for a broader investigation into condolence payments.
``The dramatic rise in condolence payments raises many questions of accountability and process -- and serve as a warning sign for incidents like Haditha," Kennedy told the Globe in a statement yesterday.
A Pentagon spokesman, asked about the rise in condolence payments last year, yesterday said that the US commanders in Iraq have the discretion to determine how and when the money is disbursed. US officials in Baghdad did not reply to requests for comment via telephone and e-mail.
The compensation payments came from the Commanders Emergency Response Program, or CERP. The fund, set up in 2003, is designed to allow military commanders on the front lines to help stabilize and secure Iraq by building good will among locals.Continued...
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