Aribi noted that “last January, the government formed a supreme committee with extensive powers headed by the deputy secretary general of the cabinet. The purpose of this committee was to speed up the compensation process for the families of terrorism victims.” The decision to form this committee was taken due to increasing complaints by beneficiaries regarding years-long delays in processing their official forms.
Islamic Supreme Council MP Abdul Hussein Abtan believes that “it is better to give compensations to the victims of terrorism than to spend that money elsewhere.”
Speaking to Al-Monitor, Abtan added, “There are apparent social benefits that consume a big part of the government’s budget but do not aid people at all. There are budgetary spending methods that supposedly fall under the operational article, but in fact, just squander public money. These funds should be given to the disadvantaged instead. Moreover, the compensation allocations paid to terrorism victims are huge, but spending them here is better than squandering them elsewhere.”
Economist Majed al-Souri believes that “this file is another outlet to encourage consumerism in the Iraqi market.”
In an interview, Souri said that “everybody agrees that the victims have the right to compensation, but, at the end of the day, this is increasing consumerism that has been devouring Iraqi society since the fall of Saddam.”
Souri added that “the compensation funds in particular are often spent on cars and furniture, because they are not part of the financial schemes of the beneficiaries. The compensations rarely turn into investment projects that bear financial revenues.”
Omar al-Shaher is a contributor to Al-Monitor’s Iraq Pulse. His writing has appeared in a wide range of publications including France’s LeMonde, the Iraqi Alesbuyia magazine, Egypt’s Al-Ahaly and the Elaph website. He previously worked for Al-Mada covering political and security affairs and as a correspondent for the Kuwaiti Awan newspaper in Baghdad in 2008-10.
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