Written by: Muhammad Ibrahim, WALHI (Friends of the Earth Indonesia) Aceh
The US-owned oil company, Mobil Oil Indonesia Inc. (MOI), which has been conducting its oil mining operation in Aceh since 1971, has proven to be totally and completely alienated itself from the severe social reality taking place in Aceh, despite the fact that its grand industrial structure stands on the very land. The political, social and humanity crises which have been gripping Aceh for no less than the last decade seem to just completely slip out of the attention or awareness of MOI. On the other hand, in several cases in fact, MOI have proven to be a significant factor in worsening the crises. Ironically, MOI have never been willing to either realize or even honestly acknowledge the existence of the situation!
To make it worst, even in the critically unpredictable current situation in Aceh, the US government and Mobil Oil were only concerned about the company's operational activities being disturbed by the situation. They were not the least bit concerned about the unpredictable fate of the Acehnese due to the severe living and security conditions in Aceh, as it worsens by the day.
Ironically, the US government and MOI seem immune to the countless facts of human rights violations occurring in Aceh, whose sadistic scale have far surpassed those occurred in East Timor.
All of this on the US government and Mobil Oil was completely revealed on the visit of the US Embassy Staff to Aceh (Thursday, 16 December 1999). In a meeting with local NGO activists and religious leaders, the Secretary of Politics of the US Ambassador for Indonesia, Ian McCary, accompanied by the Assistant to the Military Attaché, Lieutenant Colonel William A Comley, and the Advisor to the US Minister of Foreign Affairs for Indonesia, Michael P Owens, expressed their deep concerns over the current disruptions of MOI's operations as well as stating that the Acehnese will also suffer the negative outcomes should the company be forced to stop operating due to the crises. This statement was directly and strongly countered by the local NGO activists by stating, "The Acehnese will neither feel or suffer any loss should MOI cease its operations". Anyway, what kind of argument can lead us to comprehend, let alone to believe, the statement made by the US Embassy staff?
It is indeed truly amusing. Should we believe that the US government has never been aware of the fact that the profits derived from Aceh's oil and gas wealth that has been massively extracted by a joint co-operation between MOI and Pertamina for almost 30 years has returned to Aceh in the amount of no more than 5%? Or, maybe we are supposed to believe that the US government has never learned the fact that, in the area surrounding the company's grand industrial structures, there are 375,000 people of 10 subdistricts of North Aceh living in severely devastating poverty? Or, could it be that the US government has never been aware of how the annual operational activities of MOI have entirely exposed the surrounding communities to severe health risks due to the contamination of air and water in their living environment?
To make it worst, during the implementation of DOM (Daerah Operasi Militer/Military Operation Area) from 1989 to 1998, MOI has shamelessly contributed for the smooth running of the military operation that has gone down in history as the military operation responsible for the loss of lives of tens of thousands of Acehnese. MOI, together with Arun Pertamina, provided excavators and logistics in more than one occasion to the Indonesian military all through the period of their massive human rights violations.
The said period still left wide-open wounds in the hearts of the Acehnese as well as deep psychological trauma due to the horrifying military brutality they were forced to endure. Therefore, looking at the previously mentioned facts, the proper counter question to put forward to the US government should be; "What losses?!"
Is it not a fact that the Acehnese as 'The Nation in Waiting' will be most at an advantage if MOI and Pertamina completely stop extracting what's ever left of the land's oil and gas deposits, so that there will be something left for the future generations of Acehnese to manage for the better lives and well-being of the Acehnese?
As a civilized nation, globally known to upheld human rights values and democracy, the US and MOI (as one of its capital mines in Aceh) should be ashamed to have once again added to the suffering of the Acehnese by making such baseless statement. Isn't the US as an "influential" country in the international world supposed to have initiated concrete steps, together with the UN, in order to immediately end the crises in Aceh by putting forward and addressing the core issue behind the seemingly endless crises in Aceh?
Moreover, human rights enforcement, the realization of democracy (by accelerating the realization of peaceful referendum for the Acehnese), the return of the values of justice and the dignity of the Acehnese previously trampled by the military are the things whose realizations should also be facilitated by the US. Unlike the current situation, the US shouldn't have fallen into the opinion of the Indonesian government, which narrowed the whole issue on Aceh down simply as a separatist movement. In fact, the US has always known what has really been happening in Aceh, just like they know what really happened in East Timor.
In conclusion, it is high time that MOI as a multinational corporation coming from the same civilized nation to pay for their past mistakes and violations, as well as to enforce corporate ethics that truly uphold social and humanitarian values, and not to only strive for its capitalism glory! Therefore, whatever the US government and MOI plan to do in order to deal with the current situation in Aceh, they can be sure that the people of Aceh shall put each and every single one of it under severe scrutiny and recorded it in their Social Memory!
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