ExxonMobil Sued For Atrocities.

INDONESIA -- A June 20 lawsuit filed in Washington D.C. names the oil giant ExxonMobil as responsible for murder, torture and kidnapping in Aceh, a region on the northern tip of Sumatra, Indonesia. [A copy of the filing is available at www.laborrights.org.] The suit, filed on behalf of 11 Aceh residents, claims that Indonesian military troops hired by ExxonMobil to provide security for the corporation's liquefied natural gas facilities, committed numerous human rights offenses. According to the filing by the International Labor Rights Fund, villagers were kidnapped and tortured in buildings on ExxonMobil property. "While oil companies and the Indonesian government reap enormous profits, the people are suffering at the hands of the very security forces employed by ExxonMobil to protect its assets," said Kurt Biddle, Washington Coordinator for the Indonesia Human Rights Network. Since January 2000, Kontras-Aceh, a local human rights organization, has reported more than 670 killings and 161 disappearances in Aceh. The Indonesian military and police act with impunity in the resource-rich region. Prominent civic leaders and humanitarian workers have been executed. The Indonesian military's complicity in the brutal attacks that followed the August 30, 1999 independence vote in East Timor prompted the US Congress to place a ban on US military assistance to the Indonesian military. The Bush administration recently restored military aid to Indonesia.