ExxonMobil fights human rights suit: Report
Thursday, May 30 2002 - 11:03 AM WIB
The group is arguing that the case could upset delicate US relations with the largest Muslim country in the world and compromise Washington's war on terrorism, AFP reported Thursday.
ExxonMobil lawyer Martin Weinstein said Wednesday the Washington District Court hearing the case had asked the US State Department, at the company's urging, for its opinion on whether proceeding with the case would interfere with US-Indonesian relations.
"I believe that the State Department has serious concerns about whether or not this case would impact Indonesia foreign policy," Weinstein told the court, according to a transcript of the April 9 hearing.
"We believe that Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, a place where al-Qaeda-trained fighters are residing ... this is a very difficult time in Indonesian-American relations," Weinstein said at the hearing.
The suit alleged that the world's largest oil company contracted and paid Indonesian military forces to provide security for its natural gas operations in Aceh, an oil- and gas-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra, and one of the districts hardest hit by a separatist rebellion for a free Islamic state that has been raging since the mid-1970s.
The suit filed by Washington-based International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) on behalf of 11 Aceh residents, alleges that members of an Indonesian military unit murdered, tortured, raped and kidnapped villagers in buildings located on property of Mobil Oil, which merged with Exxon in 1999.
The company's tactics in the Aceh court case were one of a long list of complaints raised by shareholders before they presented a series of resolutions at the company's annual meeting on Wednesday in Dallas.
"ExxonMobil's legal defense is to claim the suit by International Labor Rights Fund is interference in US foreign policy," said Morton Winston, chairman of Amnesty International USA's Business and Economic Relations Group.
"They are trying to involve the State Department to argue in their favor. This is a novel and troubling legal tactic."
The suit was filed under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which permits foreign citizens to sue companies in US courts for crimes, including human rights violations.
Exxon has denied that the company or its affiliates were involved in the alleged abuse by Indonesian security forces and has condemned any human rights violations. (*)