put terror in yer tank...

[Guest guest]

Audrey Gillan in Washington

Friday June 22, 2001

<A HREF= " http://www.guardian.co.uk/ " >The Guardian</A>

 

ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil company, has been accused of complicity

in human rights abuses committed by security forces in Indonesia, it emerged

yesterday. A Washington-based organisation, the International Labour Rights

Fund - which represents workers abroad - lodged a complaint against the

company in a court in Washington DC on Wednesday. The lawsuit - brought on

behalf of 11 villagers - alleges that ExxonMobil was complicit in murders,

rape, torture and kidnapping during the recent campaign by the Indonesian

military to quash insurgency by separatists in the impoverished Aceh region

of western Indonesia. The company had shut down its Arun natural gas

operation in Aceh in March this year amid fears for the lives of its

employees, but the lawsuit contends that it had employed security from among

the same men who were perpetrating civil rights abuses. It alleges that

ExxonMobil provided barracks where the military tortured detainees, and lent

machinery such as excavators - which were then used to dig mass graves. An

ExxonMobil spokesman said that the company had not been served with the

lawsuit and did not have confirmation that it had been filed. He denied any

complicity in human rights abuses. " We have visited this organisation's

website where this lawsuit is posted, " he said. " Based on what we see on the

website, we would say that ExxonMobil condemns the violation of human rights

in any form. As such, 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. " The

case filings claim that the first plaintiff, John Doe I, anonymous because of

fears for his life, was riding his bicycle cart to the local market to sell

his vegetables when he " was accosted by soldiers who were assigned to

ExxonMobil's TNI Unit 113. The solders shot him in the wrist, threw a hand

grenade at him and then left him for dead " . Another man, John Doe II, is

alleged to have been stopped by soldiers working for ExxonMobil while riding

his motorbike. The filings say: " The soldiers put his motorbike in their

truck and then beat him severely on his head and body. " The soldiers then

tied his hands behind his back, put a blindfold on him, and threw him in

their truck and took him to what he later learned was Rancong Camp. " The

soldiers detained and tortured him there for a period of three months, all

the while keeping him blindfolded. ExxonMobil - which trades in Britain as

Esso - has been the focus of criticism for its expensive public relations

programme challenging the Kyoto protocol to reduce potentially harmful

emissions, and even the existence of global warming itself. The group gave

$1.2m to the election coffers of the Republican party, and now has the ear of

President George Bush and the rest of his administration, influenced to a

considerable degree by the oil lobby.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Guest guest]

Just about every tube station in central London has " I'd rather be

boycotting Esso " speech-bubble stickers stuck on all the models

mouths on the adverts along the escalators

 

Shame no motorists will see them :0

 

vegan-network, EBbrewpunx@c... wrote:

> Audrey Gillan in Washington

> Friday June 22, 2001

> <A HREF= " http://www.guardian.co.uk/ " >The Guardian</A>

>

> ExxonMobil, the world's largest oil company, has been accused of

complicity

> in human rights abuses committed by security forces in Indonesia,

it emerged

> yesterday.