LOS ANGELES -- Human rights groups lauded the announcement by lawyers that an agreement in principle has been reached to settle human rights lawsuits against oil giant Unocal Corp. over a 1990s pipeline project in Southeast Asia.
Unocal Corp. will settle the lawsuits filed in state and federal courts by paying villagers and funding improvements to living conditions along the project route, lawyers on both sides said Monday.
The settlement will compensate 14 anonymous villagers who first sued Unocal in 1996, claiming it should be held liable for enforced labor, murder and rape allegedly carried out by the Myanmar military during construction of the $1.2 billion Yadana pipeline in the country, also known as Burma.
"We are completely delighted and there is great satisfaction that the matter has been resolved in this way," said Terry Collingsworth, general counsel for the Washington D.C.-based International Labor Rights Fund, one of the groups representing plaintiffs.
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