And on the respected statment.
In the past decade alone, ExxonMobil has extracted some $40 billion from its operations in Aceh, Indonesia, leaving in its wake a legacy of death, destruction and environmental damage.
There have been credible reports dating back several years that Exxon Mobil Corporation, along with its predecessor companies, Mobil Oil Corporation and Mobil Oil Indonesia (collectively "Exxon Mobil"), hired military units of the Indonesian national army to provide "security" for their gas extraction and liquification project in Aceh, Indonesia. Members of these military units regularly have perpetrated ongoing and severe human rights abuses against local villagers, including murder, rape, torture, destruction of property and other acts of terror. ExxonMobil apparently has taken no action to stop this violence, and instead, reportedly has continued to finance the military and to provide company equipment and facilities that have been used by the Indonesian military to perpetrate and literally cover up (in the form of mass graves) these criminal acts.
The International Labor Rights Fund has taken on the challenge of seeking justice for local victims of these abuses. On June 20, 2001, ILRF filed an ATCA claim in the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, No. 01-1357 CIV, on behalf of 11 villagers from Aceh who were victims of human rights abuses by Exxon Mobil's security forces. The general theory of the case is that Exxon Mobil knowingly employed brutal military troops to protect its operations, and the company aided and abetted the human rights violations through financial and other material support to the security forces. In addition, the case alleges that the security forces are either employees or agents of Exxon Mobil, and thus Exxon Mobil is liable for their actions. Exxon Mobil filed a routine motion to dismiss ILRF's claim, and ILRF filed a response against this motion on December 14, 2001. Exxon Mobil's primary defense appears to be that the human rights violations may very well be occurring, but the company did not specifically intend this result, and therefore cannot be held liable. The legal case update on Mar 2006, where Judge Oberdorfer ruled that plaintiffs may proceed with their claims of abuses, including wrongful death, battery, assault, and arbitrary arrest against Exxon Mobil under state law can be found here
http://www.laborrights.org/projects/corporate/exxon/DenyingDismissal030206.pdf(INTERNATIONAL LABOR RIGHTS, 2007).
