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GREENLAND

United States ‘plans to invest’ in Greenland military base

The United States wants to invest in its base at Thule in Greenland, an autonomous territory of Denmark.

Thule Air Base in Greenland in October 2019
Thule Air Base in Greenland in October 2019. Photo: Ida Guldbæk Arentsen/Ritzau Scanpix

Danish newspaper Berlingske obtained a censored report from the United States that details plans to invest billions of dollars in the Arctic, including US-run Thule Air Base in Greenland.

A statement from the US Air Force says the money will go to shoring up aging infrastructure, but the US Embassy declined to elaborate further. 

The plans come as a surprise to both Danish parliament and the Greenlandic government, Berlingske reports. 

“We don’t want to be talked about. We want to take part when we’re involved. This is our country so we want to know when something is happening,” Pipaluk Lynge Rasmussen, a member of the foreign and security committee in the Grrenlandic parliament and member of governing party IA, told Berlingske.

As per the trilateral agreement between Denmark, Greenland and the US, the United States is required to “consult and inform” the other nations before significant changes to their military operations in Greenland, according to Danish newswire Ritzau. Notably, the United States doesn’t need Denmark and Greenland to sign off. 

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GREENLAND

Greenland to investigate possible human rights violations by Denmark in IUD scandal

The government in Greenland says it wants to investigate possible human rights violations related to forced contraception of women by Danish doctors in the 1960s and 1970s.

Greenland to investigate possible human rights violations by Denmark in IUD scandal

Greenland’s Minister of Justice and Equality, Naaja H. Nathanielsen, confirmed in a statement the decision to probe the historical sterilisations, Greenlandic media KNR reports.

The investigation will take place parallel to another probe already ongoing under the auspices of the governments of both Denmark and Greenland.

The government in Greenland, Naalakkersuisut, has previously said it wanted the human rights element to form part of the existing inquiry, but Denmark has turned this down, Nathanielsen told KNR.

The Danish Ministry of the Interior and Health told newswire Ritzau it was unable to comment.

More than 140 Greenlandic women meanwhile sued the Danish state earlier this week for forcing them to have a coil, or intrauterine device (IUD), fitted in the 1960s and 1970.

Some of the women were teenagers at the time.

Denmark carried out the campaign quietly, without the women’s consent or even knowledge in some cases, to limit the birth rate in the Arctic territory, which was no longer a colony at the time but still under Danish control.

The lawyer for the plaintiffs, Mads Pramming, said on Monday that the case is a clear instance of human rights violation.

The Danish-Greenlandic investigation into the IUD scandal is expected to be completed in 2025. Its purpose is to uncover the political initiatives that resulted in the forced contraceptions.

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