Judge rules Unocal can be tried in US for alleged Myanmar rights abuses.

(From Agence France Presse)

US oil giant Unocal must stand trial here for alleged complicity in human rights abuses by Myanmar's military junta, including forced labor, rape and torture, court documents showed.

"Prior to its involvement in the pipeline project, Unocal had specific knowledge that the use of forced labour was likely, and nevertheless chose to proceed," said Los Angeles Superior Court judge Victoria Chaney in a ruling.

In the decision released Wednesday, Chaney rejected arguments by the California-based energy firm, which built a gas pipeline in Myanmar, that the case should be tried at least in part under Myanmar or Bermuda law.

Unocal had made a bid to have the long-running case shifted to the country formerly known as Burma as the alleged abuses took place there, or to Bermuda where a Unocal unit is registered.

But lawyers representing Myanmar villagers allegedly abused by the isolated Southeast Asian nation's military regime contested the move and the judge agreed it would be offensive to allow Myanmar law to be applied.

But the judge said foreign laws such as Myanmar's "indeterminate" laws could not be given precedence if they were morally offensive to public policy.