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)