Mobil Oil 'knows nothing' of rights abuses in Aceh

Mobil Oil 'knows nothing' of rights abuses in Aceh

JAKARTA (JP): The management of an American-based oil company
denied on Wednesday that it should share the blame for human
rights abuses in Aceh, the country's northernmost province.

Chief executive officer of Mobil Oil Corp., L.A. Noto, was
responding to allegations by a coalition of 11 non-governmental
organizations in Sumatra that military members interrogated and
tortured people at some of the firm's facilities in Aceh. They
also charged that company equipment was used to bury those who
died.

Although it regretted the abuses, Noto argued that the
management did not know for what purpose its facilities were
used.

"From time to time, both state authorities and military
authorities have asked us to use some construction equipment, for
roads and things like that," Noto said after meeting President
B.J. Habibie at the State Palace. "And generally speaking, we
have tried to accommodate these requests.

"Beyond that, frankly, we do not have other knowledge. And...
if anything happened because somebody used the equipment in a
wrong way, I am very sorry for that, but (there is) no control
over that." NGOs also claim that gas company PT Arun permitted
military abuses of civilians at its Aceh facility.

In their statement earlier this month, the NGOs said a
building and equipment belonging to Mobil Oil at a post in
Landing-Lhoksukon were used as a site to interrogate and torture
victims. The statement also said the firm's heavy equipment was
used to dig the mass graves in Lhoksukon district, North Aceh.

The statement continued: "Mobil Oil did not question the
disappearance of some of their employees who were kidnapped by
the military during work hours."

Noto said he had no knowledge of missing employees. The NGOs
said their accusation was based on results of their fact-finding
team on human rights violations, particularly those occurring
during military operations from 1989 to 1998 in Aceh.

The NGOs included the Indonesian Environment Forum's executive
board and its four branches in Sumatra, the Aceh NGO Coalition
for human rights and the Lhokseumawe-based Committee for Missing
Persons and Victims (Kontras).

The NGOs also urged investigations into the involvement of the
companies in Aceh to be conducted by the U.S. government, Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch.

Separately from Aceh AP quoted military spokesman Lt. Halkis
as saying 23 protesters were arrested in a demonstration in which
Indonesian flags at government and military offices were torn
down. Alleged separatist rebel supporters fired shots at
government buildings during the demonstration Monday in
Lhokseumawe, AP said, adding there were no casualties. (prb/anr)