Jakarta – Indonesia's state oil company Pertamina on Friday described as misguided a human rights case filed in Washington against US oil giant ExxonMobil over its operations in Indonesia.

"All matters regarding the protection of vital installations is Pertamina's responsibility based on our production-sharing contract agreement with ExxonMobil," Pertamina president director Baihaki Hakim told reporters at a press conference here.

Hakim was responding to questions on a lawsuit filed by the International Labor Rights Fund against ExxonMobil in Washington on Wednesday. The fund charged in its suit that ExxonMobil had paid and directed government security forces who had committed atrocities on the civilian population in gas fields operated by ExxonMobil in North Aceh.

But Hakim said Pertamina was responsible for security at the gas fields. "I think it's inappropriate to say that ExxonMobil has paid [government forces] because people have no idea of the relationship between Pertamina and ExxonMobil, they are our subcontractors," Hakim said. "When it comes to matters of payment, it's Pertamina's responsibility, so feel free to file a lawsuit," Hakim added.

The suit was filed on behalf of 11 residents of Aceh, an oil and gas-rich province on the northern tip of Sumatra province, under the Alien Tort Claims Act, which allows US jurisdiction over acts committed outside the United States.

The suit charges that Exxon Mobil provided logistical and material support to Indonesian troops operating in Aceh province during the 1989-1998 period when former president Suharto declared Aceh a "military operational area" in order to combat a separatist movement.

During that period Mobil Oil, which has since merged with Exxon, provided logistical and material support to Indonesian troops. This included building barracks where elite military units carried out torture, and providing excavators used to dig mass graves, the suit charged.

Hakim said that for a long time, Pertamina had asked for assistance from either the Indonesian armed forces or the National Police whenever security at any of Pertamina's facilities across the country came under threat.

He said Pertamina had provided the army and police in Aceh with "transportation and housing facilities," but said that they gave "no financial support" to the troops.

"We are not paying their salaries because they are being paid by the government ... however we provide them with housing and transportation facilities because they are securing our areas," Hakim said. North Aceh, where most of ExxonMobil's gas operations are located, is one of the districts worst hit by the activities of separatist rebels of the Free Aceh Movement, who have been fighting for a free Islamic state since the mid-1970s.

In March ExxonMobil was forced to close down its natural gas fields in Aceh due to rapidly deteriorating security conditions there, costing the government 100 million dollars a month in lost liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports to Japan and South korea.

PT ExxonMobil Indonesia, which suspended operations in three of its gas fields in March for security reasons, is preparing to resume oil and gas production in Aceh in early July, the company's spokeswoman told AFP Thursday.