International rights attorneys have filed suit against Occidental Petroleum and its security contractor Airscan Inc., for their alleged role in the murder of 17 civilians in the hamlet of Santo Domingo, Colombia on December 13, 1998. The suit claims that both OXY and Airscan helped execute the attack by providing strategic information, ground and air support to the Colombian military in the bombing raid, and an Airscan plane that accompanied the bombing. Although alleged targets of this bombing were rebels, no rebels were killed. "The evidence in this lawsuit validates what human rights and environmental groups have been saying all along - that OXY is a morally bankrupt company that directly perpetrates human rights abuses. It's an outrage that U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill for such a lawless corporation," said Kevin Koenig of Amazon Watch.
