Caltex employees given 24 hours to condemn U.S. invasion of Iraq

Hundreds of sympathizers of the Breakthrough Party (Partai Pelopor) staged a rally outside the offices of American oil company PT Caltex Pacific Indonesia (CPI) here on Thursday, giving its employees 24 hours to condemn the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

They demanded that the Americans working for CPI quit their jobs unless they condemned the U.S. military action against Saddam Hussein, Antara reported.

"If the deadline is left unheeded, we will expel them from Riau," said the chairman of the Pekanbaru branch of the Breakthrough Party, Nursal Tanjung.

In their speeches, party members condemned the U.S. military assault on Iraq, which has led to the death of many Iraqi civilians. They also asked the United Nations Security Council to bring U.S. President George W Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair to the International Court of Justice as war criminals.

They threatened to hold another rally outside the CPI building within three days to see how the company had responded to their demands.

CPI, a subsidiary of US oil major Chevron-Texaco is the country's largest oil producer with daily output of around 500,000 barrels per day. (*)