ExxonMobil accused of aiding human rights abuse

ExxonMobil is being sued in federal court by a human rights group alleging that it directly supported human rights abuses committed by Indonesian security forces guarding the company's Arun natural gas operations in Aceh Province. The suit, filed Wednesday on behalf of 11 villagers in US District Court in Washington by the International Labor Rights Fund, names defendants Exxon Mobil and PT Arun LNG Co, a joint venture with state-owned Pertamina. The suit accuses the security forces with genocide, murder, torture, rape, kidnaping and unlawful detainment. The defendants "took no action or took insufficient action to ensure that human rights would not be perpetrated by its security forces using Arun Project support and facilities," the Fund said.
ExxonMobil has issued a statement categorically denying "any suggestion or implication that it or its affiliate companies were involved with alleged human rights abuses by security forces in Aceh." Mobil began operating the Arun gas fields in 1968. It closed down the field in early March after a series of attacks on the facilities, presumably by Aceh separatists seeking independence from Indonesia.

platts.com