ExxonMobil taken
to US court over its involvement in Aceh atrocities
By a correspondent
in Jakarta
At a time
when the Indonesian government is dragging its feet
over its promise to make ‘peace’ in Aceh, without even
punishing the perpetrators of decades-long violence
against civilians, an international labour-group has
taken the unprecedented step of further exposing a less-known
incident involving an American multinational corporation.
On June
22 the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF), representing
11 Acehnese villagers, filed a lawsuit in Washington
against ExxonMobil (which often trades under the name
Esso), accusing the giant company of actively abetting
human-rights abuses in northern Sumatra. The suit is
being taken under the US Alien Tort Claims Act, which
allows jurisdiction over acts committed outside the
US.
ILRF says
that Exxon hired local army units to protect its gas-fields
in Aceh despite knowing that army units were brutal
in their fight against dissidents. Exxon is also accused
of complicity in the murder, torture and sexual abuse
of local people, and of helping the Indonesian military
to dig mass-graves and build torture-centres. ILRF lawyer
Terry Collingsworth says that Exxon knew about the security
forces’ reputation of brutality towards ethnic minorities.
"This is the first time we actually have evidence
that the oil company has supported the instrumentality
for the human rights violations," he said.
An Exxon
statement has said that the company is "deeply
troubled" by the violence in North Aceh and is
concerned for the safety of its staff and subcontractors.
"Our company rejects and categorically denies any
suggestion or implication that it or its affiliate companies
were in any way involved with alleged human rights abuses
by security forces in Aceh," it added. The shocking
revelation, however, is not new. In October 1998, 17
Indonesian human-rights organisations accused ExxonMobil
of providing logistic support to the Indonesian army,
including earth-moving equipment that was used to dig
mass-graves.
Local
people’s resentment over the oil-company’s operations
has been growing since an investigative report in 1998
by Business Week revealed that mass-graves had been
discovered near Exxon’s drilling site. Hundreds of bodies
of people who had been tortured and killed by the army
were exhumed, providing new information about the disappearance
of dissidents near the site. One farmer, who was paid
US$4 a night by the army to prevent anyone from siphoning
fuel from its tank, told Business Week that he saw soldiers
execute between 60 and 70 blindfolded men at a time
with M-16 rifles, letting their dead bodies tumble into
a mass-grave. In addition, the oil company is also accused
of providing facilities for Post 13, the Indonesian
version of the Khiam camp run by Israel during its occupation
of southern Lebanon. Post 13 was notorious for its use
of torture in the interrogation of Acehnese dissidents.
In May
last year several armed men occupied Exxon’s gas-field
and threatened to blow it up. However, members of the
Free Aceh Movement (GAM), who had earlier signed a ‘ceasefire’
with Jakarta, freed the employees despite knowing about
the locals’ well-founded grievances against the company.
This was because the incident could have been staged
by Jakarta in its attempt to ruin the ceasefire as a
pretext to deploy more troops in the province.
Oil-rich
Aceh is the source of one third of Indonesia’s total
oil and gas exports. American multinationals have long
worked hand in glove with the Suharto regime to exploit
the region’s natural reserves. The Asia-Pacific region
contributes about 13 percent of Exxon’s worldwide oil
and gas production. In Indonesia it produces gas which
is then processed by the state-owned firm Pertamina,
which was wrecked by a series of corruption scandals
during the Suharto era.
The lawsuit,
if successful, will be the first such lawsuit involving
western multinationals in this region, and could frighten
other multinational companies in other parts of the
world, especially Africa and South America. ILRF’s action
is a giant step in bringing to justice those behind
the atrocities in Aceh. However, it is a far cry from
the end of the frequent violence that the Acehnese people
have to live with even today.
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