The International Labor Rights Fund has filed suit against Exxon corporation using the Alien Tort Claims Act, stating that Exxon hired troops to protect its oilfields, troops that raped, tortured and killed citizens of the Aceh province in northern Sumatra. ILRF will present evidence that implicates Exxon in the atrocities.

Thousands have died in Aceh, more than 700 this year. The ILRF says it has evidence that Exxon provided equipment to dig mass graves, as well as paying to build torture and interrogation centers.

Exxon withdrew from operations in Aceh after many of its employees were kidnapped. But the ILRF says that Exxon knew from early on that the brutality of local army units hired as security guards was hurting the local population.

This is one of the first cases in recent years that a corporation has been directly accused of human rights abuses, although similar charges have been leveled in the case of paramilitary groups hired to protect oil fields in Nigeria (Shell) and Colombia.