Exxon appeals ruling on villagers? lawsuit

Exxon Mobil Corp., the world?s biggest oil company, said it is appealing a U.S. judge?s decision to allow a lawsuit by Indonesian villagers to proceed, The Jakarta Post reported on Monday.

U.S. District Court Judge Louis Oberdorfer in Washington Thursday denied a motion by Irving, Texas-based Exxon to dismiss the suit on sovereignty grounds.

He ruled in October that the villagers could sue the company under U.S. state laws, but not federal law, a decision Exxon is appealing.

?Matters of foreign affairs should not be handled by the courts,? Exxon spokeswoman Susan Reeves said in an emailed statement Friday.

Permitting the suit creates the potential for any U.S. company operating overseas to be held liable for the actions of a host government, she said.

Eleven villagers, known as ?John Doe? or ?Jane Doe? in court documents to protect their identities, sued Exxon in 2001, claiming that Indonesian security forces working for the company committed murder, torture and rape.

Exxon, which denies the allegations, operates a government- owned oil and natural-gas field and a pipeline in Aceh province on the island of Sumatra.

?Exxon condemns human rights violations in any form,? Reeves said. The appeal of Oberdorfer?s earlier decision on state law is pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia circuit, she said.

In his ruling, Oberdorfer ordered the parties to come up with a workable plan on discovery, and set a status conference for March 16.

The suit is backed by the International Labor Rights Fund, a Washington-based workers? advocacy group.

?This ruling has global implications,? said Michael Hausfeld of Cohen, Milstein, Hausfeld & Toll in Washington, who was lead counsel for the plaintiffs.

?It sends the signal to U.S. companies operating overseas that they cannot expect to facilitate and permit these kinds of abuses in the countries where they are operating and escape without punishment.? (*)