U.S. settles with TOKYO >> The families of 33 teachers and students who were aboard a Japanese fishing trawler that was sunk by a U.S. submarine off Hawaii have agreed to a multimillion-dollar compensation from the U.S. Navy, news reports and a lawyer for the families said today.
families of 33 Ehime
Maru victims
Associated Press
Japan's Kyodo News agency said the two sides had agreed to a payment of $13 million.
Morio Hatakeyama, the chief lawyer for the families, declined to disclose the size of the payment but said an agreement had been reached and it would be signed at the U.S. Embassy in Tokyo next Thursday.
The deal covers 33 of the 35 families of those killed or injured, he said. Negotiations between the U.S. Navy and the two other families continue.
Nine men and teenage boys died when the USS Greeneville surfaced beneath the Ehime Maru on Feb. 9, 2001, sinking it off the coast of Oahu. The vessel was on a training expedition for students and teachers from Uwajima Fisheries High School in Ehime prefecture in Japan.
Under U.S. law, compensation must be completed within two years of an accident, giving the families until next February to decide whether to accept a settlement offer or file a civil lawsuit, Hatakeyama said. Washington had earlier reportedly considered paying about $1.85 million each to the seven families of the dead crew, matching a U.S. compensation fund for the Sept. 11 terror attacks.
