Compensate Innocents in Harm’s Way : Panama: Civilians were part of the casualty equation as U.S. troops went in. They should not be ignored as the troops leave.

On Jan. 25, President Bush announced a $1-billion package of aid for the reconstruction of Panama that consists of grants, loans and trade benefits. Guillermo Endara, the new president of Panama, responded with thanks and muted remarks that Panama needs more--smiles and good will all around.

No one is smiling in Santo Tomas, Panama City’s municipal hospital. Dimly lit hallways open to crowded wards that smell of equal parts disinfectant, human waste and stale blood. The beds, two feet apart, are all full. The people are quiet. Some lack a limb or two. Some are in traction. All are in bandages. These are the flotsam of our invasion of Panama. Civilians who were unlucky enough to get in the way. Most are from the poor neighborhoods where the heaviest fighting occurred. They may know about President Bush’s relief package, but none expect their own government to turn it into meaningful relief for them.

Some examples:

Maricela McFarland was asleep in Chorillo with her three daughters when the assault on the nearby Comandancia began. She was leading them out of her house when a shard of shrapnel took a pound of her thigh and all but tore off her 2-year-old daughter’s foot.

Ernesto Cubilla was drinking water in his kitchen at 8 o’clock on the morning of the invasion. A helicopter gunship strafing Dignity Battalion members nearby sent a stray round through his roof. The oldest of his five children, his 18-year-old son, rushed in to find him splayed in the corner. He lost a lung and a kidney and suffered liver damage.

Heriberto Pitti had worked for Eastern Airlines for 19 years. He was on the night shift as a cargo agent at the Eastern hangar when our troops attacked the airport. Pitti, Pablo Diaz and another colleague jumped into an Eastern pickup and raced out of the hangar. The truck took seven rounds through the windshield, killing all three men. Pitti left a widow and two daughters; Diaz left a widow and 12 children.

These are not isolated cases. Although the number of dead noncombatants has been listed at 202, unofficial tolls are higher. The wounded outnumber the dead.

Combat in densely populated areas is nothing new, but Panama is not Vietnam or Germany of 1945. As a people and as a government--except during the latter part of Manuel A. Noriega’s leadership--Panama has been friendly toward the United States for all of its nearly 90 years as a nation. Through construction and management of the canal, America and Panama have developed a unique interdependence. For decades, Panamanians and Americans have lived, worked and raised families together.

The invasion of Panama was well planned and executed. Nonetheless, many of the military targets were in thickly settled areas. Planners must have expected heavy civilian casualties. These casualties were part of the equation as our troops went in and they should not be ignored as our troops leave.

The proposed aid package is a generous show of support to Panama’s new government. It won’t, however, help the individuals who need and deserve help, too. The package is designed primarily to alleviate Panama’s foreign debt, fund government-reconstruction programs and provide low-interest loans and trade benefits to Panama’s businesses. It includes no compensation for innocent victims of the invasion. Even if did, though, it would be unfair to burden Panama’s new government with the task.

The United States should compensate the innocent people who can substantiate claims of injury or loss from the invasion. We decided to invade. We should attend to the actual victims.

This would not be without precedent. The United States has compensated the innocent victims of our combat in the Dominican Republic after the invasion of 1965 and in Grenada after the invasion of 1983. In the Dominican Republic and again in Grenada, the U.S. Army established a field office solely to adjudicate and pay claims from invasion victims. Claims attorneys for the Army have the training to substantiate losses and ensure that claims are, in fact, for innocent noncombatants.

The United States should not overlook the human element in Panama’s recovery--especially after our political, material and human investment in making it safe for democracy.