IRAQ:The US embassy in Baghdad has begun offering tens of thousands of dollars in payments to the victims of the September 16th shootings in Baghdad involving Blackwater Worldwide security guards, say relatives and US officials.
But family members of several victims turned down the compensation, out of concern that any acceptance of money would limit their future claims against the North Carolina-based security firm. Others said that the money being offered - in some cases $12,500 for a death - was paltry and that they wanted to sue Blackwater in an American court.
"This is an insult," said Firoz Fadhil Abbas, whose brother Osama was killed in a barrage of bullets on September 16th. "The funeral and the wake cost more than what they offered. My brother who got killed was responsible for four families."
The offers of compensation, while a standard practice in the US military, are unusual for the US embassy to undertake, reflecting the diplomatic and political sensitivities raised by the shootings, which sparked outrage in Iraq and worldwide.
US embassy spokeswoman Mirembe Nantongo described the offers as "condolence payments" to support the relatives of the victims and said they were not intended to be a final settlement. Relatives could still bring suits against Blackwater, she said.
"It's not an admission of culpability," Ms Nantongo said. "And this is in no way a waiver of future claims." Blackwater guards contend they were ambushed by Iraqi civilians and policemen. But eyewitnesses, police investigators and US soldiers at the scene say the guards opened fire on Iraqi civilians without provocation.
The Iraqi government has concluded that Blackwater is solely to blame for the shootings, which killed 17 people in Nisoor Square near the affluent western Baghdad neighbourhood of Mansour.
Meanwhile, the US Congress is set to place all armed contractors operating in combat zones under military control, a Pentagon recommendation that could run into resistance at the State Department. The Senate this month included such a requirement in its 2008 defence spending bill.
Democratic senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate armed services committee, said he is confident the House of Representative will go along with the idea and include it in a final bill to be sent to president George Bush.
Secretary of state Condoleezza Rice was due to testify on the issue yesterday before the House oversight and government reform committee. She has ordered new rules for the private guards who are hired to protect US diplomats. They include increased monitoring and explicit rules on when and how they can use deadly force.
The steps were recommended by a review panel that Dr Rice created after the September 16th shootings. She also urged better co-ordination with the military, but did not explicitly act on a suggestion by defence secretary Robert Gates that combatant commanders have control over the contractors.
Mr Levin said he was not sure if Ms Rice expressly opposed the idea. "Whether she likes it or not, we expect to get this language" to emerge in the compromise with the House.
The Blackwater shooting provoked an outcry from the Democratic-led Congress and the Iraqi government, which is demanding that it have the right to prosecute the contractors.
The state department's security chief, Richard Griffin, was forced to resign on Wednesday after a critical review found his office had failed to adequately supervise private contractors protecting US diplomats in Iraq.