U.S. labors to pay claims from Iraqi war victims

[NNN0LHI]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20040222/ts_chicagotrib/uslaborstopayclaimsfromiraqiwarvictims&cid=2027&ncid=1480

The questions swirled inside the dank courthouse as Aboud Sarhan Mouyed and his lawyers faced off with an attorney for the U.S. Army, thrashing out terms of compensation for a bomb blast last April that killed his family, wrecked his house and incinerated his flock of sheep.


Is there a price that can be placed on a single life, let alone 20? What is the market value of one sheep, or as many 400? Can a home, five cars and jewelry worn by his now-dead daughters be accounted for? And even when it is all added up, can cash bring meaning to a broken man's existence?


"I wish I was dead," said Mouyed, 65, a shepherd whose weathered face was swaddled in a red-and-white checkered kaffiyeh, the traditional Arab headdress.


Mouyed's case is just one among thousands as the U.S. military copes with compensation claims filed by Iraqi civilians who say they have suffered from the U.S.-led war and occupation of their land.

more