SBY may be asked to defend ExxonMobil in human-rights abuse lawsuit

US energy giant ExxonMobil Corp may ask to question President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, popularly called SBY, as a witness in its defense against a human rights-abuse lawsuit filed by villagers in Aceh, a move that could be used to throw the case out of court. Upstream online reported

SBY, who was recently re-elected for a five-year term, was the minister of mining and energy during the 1999-2001 period in which villagers in Aceh province claim they were abused by security forces employed by the company, Alex Oh, a lawyer for ExxonMobil, said.

?His conduct will be squarely at issue in this case,? Oh said at a hearing before Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington Monday.

She asked the judge to dismiss the suit on separation-of-power grounds because seeking testimony from SBY and others may interfere with US foreign policy.

Eleven Indonesian villagers sued in 2001, claiming security forces working for ExxonMobil committed murder, torture and rape in Aceh, where the company operates a natural gas field and a pipeline.

ExxonMobil, which denies the allegations, lost a motion to dismiss the lawsuit last August when another federal judge ruled that there is evidence that Indonesian soldiers under contract with the company committed atrocities.

If Lamberth rejects the company?s latest motion to dismiss, the plan for the next round of discovery, including testimony from witnesses in Indonesia, should be submitted to the US State Department for review before he approves it, Oh said.

Lamberth declined to say when he may rule.

Agnieszka Fryszman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said she didn?t see a need for an agency review of the plan.

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

?The State Department has never objected? to the litigation, Fryszman said.

Testimony from witnesses from Indonesia would be ?very narrow? and could be conducted outside the country in neighboring Singapore, she said.

The State Department did urge a judge to dismiss the suit in 2002, saying it would violate Indonesia?s sovereignty and might harm the war on terror.

The judge ruled in 2006 that the case could proceed under state law, dismissing claims under the federal Alien Torts Claims and Torture Victims Protection acts.

The US Supreme Court last year refused to intervene. (*)