T

he Indonesian National Commission for Human Rights (Komnas HAM) welcomed a ruling by a US federal appeals court giving the green light for 15 villagers to sue US-based Exxon Mobil Corp. for allegedly abetting and aiding torture, murder and sexual assault in Aceh.

Commissioner Johny Simanjuntak said disclosing the truth behind allegations of human rights violations was very important to fulfill the sense of justice of Indonesians, especially those in formerly conflict-ridden Aceh.

“I strongly agree with the ruling because those involved need to be held to account,” he told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.

On Friday, a US federal appeals court in Washington said Exxon was not immune from liability under a US law known as the Alien Tort Statute for “heinous conduct” allegedly committed by its agents in violation of human rights norms.

The appeals court decision reinstated a lawsuit thrown out by a lower court in the US.

In a 2-1 decision Friday, the US Court of Appeals in Washington said Exxon did not have corporate immunity from claims filed by 15 Acehnese villagers under the Alien Tort Statute. The court reversed the ruling of a trial judge who said the villagers couldn’t use US courts to sue for alleged actions that took place in Indonesia and involved the Indonesian military during a period of martial law.

“It would create a bizarre anomaly to immunize corporations from liability for the conduct of their agents in lawsuits brought for ‘shockingly egregious violations of universally recognized principles of international law,’” Judge Judith Rogers wrote in her 112-page opinion, as quoted by Bloomberg News.

Exxon spokesman Patrick McGinn told Bloomberg the company had “fought these baseless claims for many years” and was reviewing the decision.

In two lawsuits consolidated for appeal, Indonesian villagers claimed Exxon was responsible for the abuses because they were committed by an Indonesian military unit dedicated only to Exxon’s Aceh facility
and under the company’s direction and control.

The 15 villagers contended in their lawsuit that family members were killed and that others were “beaten, burned, shocked with cattle prods, kicked and subjected to other forms of brutality and cruelty” amounting to torture in Aceh between 1999 and 2001, a period of civil unrest.

Exxon provided material support to the unit by hiring mercenaries for training, advice and intelligence, the villagers alleged.

Exxon, based in Irving, Texas, was aware that the army had committed human rights violations in the past, they claimed.

In 2009, US District Judge Royce Lamberth in Washington ruled the villagers didn’t have the right to sue Exxon in a US court because they were non-resident aliens. He dismissed the lawsuits, filed in 2001 and 2007 against the oil company.

Agnieszka Fryszman, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, said in an email to the Post on Sunday that a trial was the next step “so that we can present our evidence to a jury and get justice for our clients who have been waiting a long time”.

“We hope Exxon will not choose continued appeals on procedural issues,” she said. Fryszman said the US was where Exxon was incorporated and where the parent company maintains its principal place of business. Therefore, “the lawsuit is pending in US court.” (drs)