Judge allows human rights lawsuit against Unocal Corp.

Judge allows human rights lawsuit against Unocal Corp.

A California judge on Tuesday kept alive a human rights
lawsuit that claims energy giant Unocal Corp. should be held
liable for the alleged enslavement of local residents during
construction of a gas pipeline in Southeast Asia.

The lawsuit alleges that during the 1990s soldiers in Myanmar,
a politically isolated country formerly known as Burma, forced
male villagers to help build the $1.2 billion Yadana pipeline
into Thailand. El Segundo-based Unocal was a minority partner in
the project.

Plaintiffs' lawyers representing 14 anonymous residents also
alleged that soldiers murdered a baby, raped women and girls and
forced people out of their homes to clear the pipeline's route.

The case against the oil and gas giant is considered a key
test among human rights activists seeking to hold multinational
corporations responsible in U.S. courts for alleged atrocities
committed abroad. On Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Victoria
Gerrard Chaney ruled the case can proceed to a jury trial.

"Unocal is going to have to stand before a jury of 12 people
and defend the despicable conduct which literally destroyed the
lives of tens of thousands," plaintiffs' attorney Dan Stormer
said.

Daniel Petrocelli, Unocal's lead attorney, said Chaney's
ruling made it unclear how the case would proceed. But he said
Unocal also would now seek to have "false allegations" regarding
the dead baby tossed from the suit, along with certain other
aspects of the case.

In her decision, Chaney rejected Unocal's arguments that the
case be dismissed because the company's subsidiaries should have
been the legal targets. Unocal also has denied that human rights
abuses occurred during the project.

Earlier this year, Chaney sided with Unocal when she ruled
that the company's overseas subsidiaries, which built and operate
the pipeline, should have been sued instead, because they were
real entities that could be held liable. The statute of
limitations to sue the subsidiaries involved in the project has
expired.

Unocal had argued that the case should be dismissed following
Chaney's earlier ruling.

On Tuesday, Chaney ruled that the plaintiffs could pursue
their case before a jury under a legal theory that the
subsidiaries acted as Unocal's agents.

Petrocelli said he believed "the jury would find exactly the
same thing" as the judge had previously - that Unocal was not
responsible for the alleged actions of Myanmar's soldiers. The
country's military dictatorship has been criticized
internationally for its human rights record, which includes the
detainment of Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi. -- AP