NATO officials are finding it difficult compensating Afghan property owners for damage caused during the conflict:

“But as word spread, military units found themselves overwhelmed with hundreds of people claiming compensation for damage, some of it done long before the recent fighting.

‘We are victims of our own success,’ Lt. Col. Tom McFadyen, commander of a squadron of the 101st Airborne Division in Zhare District, said ruefully.

One of his commanders complained that he had five people claiming compensation for the same piece of property; such are the complexities of land ownership here. People have even been coming from outside the area to claim compensation for nonexistent property, said the district chief, Hajji Niaz Muhammad Sarhadi.

Unable to evaluate the claims, or to work out who the real owners of the land are, the military has pushed the onus of settling the claims onto Afghan district officials.”

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