With the US government firmly on its side, energy giant ExxonMobil claims allegations of human rights abuses filed against it in a lawsuit on behalf of 11 villagers in Aceh province are groundless.
The lawsuit filed by the International Labor Rights Fund (ILRF) accuses ExxonMobil of complicity in acts of torture and murder in Aceh, where the company operates vast natural gas fields.
"The allegations by the ILRF that ExxonMobil is responsible for human rights abuses are completely without merit," an ExxonMobil spokeswoman was quoted as saying by global commodity news service Platts on Wednesday. "We are disturbed by the allegations and will continue to vigorously defend ourselves," she said.
If ExxonMobil feels the charges are rubbish, why did the company strongly argue back in April and May that the lawsuit could jeopardize US-Indonesia relations and America's war on terror?
Presumably because the US State Department recently advised the Federal District Court of Columbia in Washington to drop the lawsuit on those very grounds.
More tellingly, the State Department expressed concern that Chinese oil companies now making inroads into Indonesia's oil-gas sector might try to replace the US energy behemoth if it was forced to leave.
The ILRF filed the legal action in June 2001, stating that an Indonesian military unit guarding ExxonMobil's operations in Aceh had murdered, tortured and kidnapped locals, apparently with the company's knowledge.
ExxonMobil allegedly provided barracks where the state security forces tortured detainees, and excavators that were allegedly used to dig mass graves near the Arun gas fields.
In May, ExxonMobil lawyer Martin Weinstein said the State Department has "serious concerns about whether or not this case would impact Indonesia foreign policy".
"We believe that Indonesia, the largest Muslim country in the world, [is] a place where Al-Qaeda-trained fighters are residing ... this is a very difficult time in Indonesian-American relations," he said.
But shareholders attending ExxonMobil's annual meeting in Dallas in May complained about the company's unprecedented tactic to beat the lawsuit.
"ExxonMobil's legal defense is to claim the suit by International Labor Rights Fund is interference in US foreign policy," said Morton Winston, chairman of Amnesty International USA's Business and Economic Relations Group, which owns shares in ExxonMobil.
"They are trying to involve the State Department to argue in their favor. This is a novel and troubling legal tactic," he said.
Amnesty leads an alliance of environmental, human rights and consumer groups that has been urging ExxonMobil to implement a policy to uphold human rights principles.
ExxonMobil has washed its hands of the abuses, pointing out that Indonesia's state-owned oil and gas firm Pertamina "owns the Arun facilities and is responsible for coordinating security for the project, which in turn is provided by the government of Indonesia".