Payments to victims of war top $39,000

AUSTRALIAN soldiers are paying out more than $30,000 a year in damages claims to innocent victims of the war in Afghanistan.

AUSTRALIAN soldiers are paying out more than $30,000 each year in instant damages claims to innocent victims of the war in Afghanistan.

Data obtained under Freedom of Information laws and analysed by The Australian reveals the number of payments under the tactical payment scheme is increasing more than the average amount being dispensed.

The scheme is used mainly by the Special Operations Task Group and, to a much lesser extent, the First Mentoring Task Force, allowing them to give money to those aggrieved by their actions and behaviour.

In 2009-10, when the scheme was first introduced, there were 124 payments totalling $32,639.42. Last financial year, there were 261 payments totalling $39,183.37, while in the period to mid-December a total of $17,834.40 had been paid out for 202 incidents.

Most payments related to incidents in Tarin Kowt.

The Australian Defence Force will not provide further details, as the FOI decision-maker fears such disclosures could "jeopardise mission accomplishment and compromise force protection, given the fragile social environment in Afghanistan".

The decision-maker also found that specifying the amount of each payment would "have the propensity to create a local economy, with false claims or contrived incidents and unrealistic expectations on maximum payments".

Previously there have been claims that a civilian death in Afghanistan warrants a payment of $US1200 under the scheme and an injury $US200-$US300.

Yesterday, a Defence spokesperson would not even detail the types of scenarios where a payment might be warranted, saying only that the legislation did not distinguish between operational and non-operational contexts.

"The tactical payment scheme is a Defence legislative scheme designed to provide a means for making expeditious no-liability payments to a person who suffers loss, damage or injury outside Australia because of an incident that occurs in the course of an activity involving the Australian Defence Force," the spokesperson said.

The Australian has previously used FOI laws to obtain the policy directive for the scheme, which has remained unchanged and provides for payments to be audited.