Workers kidnapped from ExxonMobil boat

Rebels in Indonesia's Aceh province abducted nine crew of a boat carrying equipment belonging to US-based oil company ExxonMobil, the military said Monday.

The boat was headed for an offshore oil exploration field off North Aceh when it was intercepted Sunday by armed men on board two fishing boats, Aceh military spokesman Major Zaenal Muttaqin was quoted by AFP as saying.

The armed men forced the 11 crew of the boat, called the Pelangi, to go ashore and abducted nine of them, Muttaqin said. The two other crew members were left unharmed.

The Pelangi was chartered by ExxonMobil to carry oil exploration equipment, and the crew were not employees of the company, he said.

Some 2,000 soldiers have been deployed for to search for the nine crew, he said, blaming the separatist Free Aceh Movement (GAM) for the abduction.

The GAM has carried out a series of abductions of civilians in the province but most victims have been released unharmed.

ExxonMobil is the largest foreign investor in Aceh, Indonesia's westernmost province. It taps liquefied natural gas in cooperation with Indonesia's energy giant Pertamina.

GAM and human rights groups have accused ExxonMobil of being involved in human rights abuses because of its relations with the military.

Hundreds of soldiers have been deployed around the company's complex in North Aceh to guard it against possible attacks by GAM rebels, who have been fighting for independence in Aceh since 1976.

But human rights groups have said Indonesian troops have used the company's facilities to commit atrocities, prompting the International Labor Rights Fund to sue the company in the US Federal Court in June last year. The matter has not yet been settled.

More than 10,000 people, mostly civilians, have died in the separatist conflict in resource-rich Aceh, including over 600 this year alone.(*)