U.S. Expands Greenland Relations in Support of Missile Defense

IGALIKU, Greenland, August 9, 2004 (ENS) - Agreements broadening environmental, economic, and technical cooperation between the United States, Denmark and Greenland were signed here on Friday after two years of negotiation. The accord, which modernizes the 1951 Defense of Greenland Agreement, paves the way for an upgrade of radar facilities at Thule Air Base to support the U.S. missile defense program.

The agreements were signed by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, Greenland Deputy Premier Josef Motzfeldt, and Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller. Greenland became an integral part of the Kingdom of Denmark in 1953 and was granted home rule in 1979.

During an interview with Greenland TV on Friday, Powell said the Thule Air Base is "really designed to make sure that we have in place the kinds of surveillance operations and activities that would be useful if these rogue nations, these nations that we know were developing long-range missiles and could carry weapons of mass destruction, actually are able to put these weapons in place."

At that time it would be too late to "locate them and protect ourselves," said Powell, "the time to do that is now."

(From left) Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller, Greenland Deputy Premier Josef Motzfeldt, and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell sign an agreement to amend and supplement the 1951 Agreement on the Defense of Greenland. (Photo courtesy U.S. State Department)

Powell explained that what will take place at Thule in the short term are "some fairly modest software and fairly minor hardware upgrades to the facility, which will not be obvious to the average person passing by."

"We're some distance away from determining where we might need interceptors," Powell said, "but there are no plans right now for anything other than what we have already made known to the Home Rule government and to the Kingdom of Denmark."

Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller expressed support for the U.S. missile defense system that is expected to be part of the future configuration of the Thule Air Base. "We have not said we are opposed to missile defense systems. We have never said that. We have said it cannot defend us against terrorism, all sorts of terrorism, but that doesn't mean you should not defend yourself against some sort of terrorism."

"One of the threats to the future will be wild weapons of mass destruction. So if you have better possibilities to stop one of those weapons of mass destruction, that's a good opportunity," Moeller said.

Thule's strategic location on the northwest tip of Greenland is shown in this map. (Photo courtesy U.S. Strategic Air Command)

Powell told the TV audience, "With respect to Thule, we are going to be doing more to make sure that the environment is protected and that we are not doing anything at Thule that would in any way damage this beautiful country."

Most of Greenland lies beneath a sheet of ice up to 3,000 meters thick. This ice sheet measures 2,500 kilometers from north to south and up to 1,000 kilomters from east to west. It contains over four million cubic kilometers of ice. Around its edges, the icecap spills down in thousands of valley glaciers, which have sculpted the coast into deep fjords and dramatic landscapes.

The Declaration of Economic and Technical Cooperation establishes a Joint Committee which will oversee a Framework of Environmental Cooperation that is intended to protect the country's natural resources and landscapes. The Joint Committee's first meeting that will be held in Greenland this autumn.

Within this framework, projects outside the Thule Defense Area will take place, including surveys to plan cleanups. The parties stated the intention to conduct a survey of species in North Star Bay as a part of a broader environmental impact assessment in accordance with Arctic Environment Protection Strategy standards.

Thule Air Base on North Star Bay in winter (Photo courtesy Greenland Contractors)

Assessments of the potential for oil and gas drilling and extraction of minerals are also planned.

At the Thule Defense Area, projects planned under the jurisdiction of the Environmental Subcommittee include measures to prevent leaks of toxic material to the Greenland environment.

Stabilization of the coastline at North Star Bay with sea walls is planned as well as the establishment of a drainage system to protect land against erosion.

Cleanup and removal of materials and infrastructure within the Thule Defense Area is set to continue, and surveys on air emissions and sewage are planned.

In addition, the U.S. intends to develop a framework for regular public presentation of environmental data for the Thule Defense Area.

Powell explained that the United States "reaffirms that the armed forces in the Thule Defense Area respect Greenland Home Rule Government environmental standards, as reflected in the Final Governing Standards applying at the Thule Defense Area, which the U.S. government updates periodically to reflect the more protective of the U.S. or Greenlandic environmental standards."

Thule Air Base in summer (Photo courtesy U.S. Strategic Air Command)

Thule initially was created as a weather station by the United States in 1946, but its difficult relationship with the local people did not begin until May 1953.

At that time a population of 87 Inughuit, an ethnic group honored in the rest of Greenland for maintaining the old ways of hunting and fishing, was told by Danish authorities that the population had four days to leave so that the Thule Air Base could expand.

Hunting is more difficult at the resettlement community, Qaanaaq, says Uusaqqak Qujaukitsoq, leader of the exiles who are fighting a legal battle with the Danish government to get their land back. Qaanaaq is the most northerly municipality in the world.

Qujaukitsoq visited the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise that visited the area in August 2001 on a voyage to publicize the downside of the U.S. missile defense system, Star Wars.

The Greenpeace log of that voyage, which had a Greenlandic translator aboard, quotes Qujaukitsoq as saying he is opposed to Star Wars, which he fears will make his homeland a bomb target.

He was also very concerned with the legacy of chemical and radioactive pollution from the U.S. military presence in this area, the log states.

In 1968 a U.S. B52 plane carrying four nuclear bombs crashed on the ice in Bylot Sound 12 miles from the base, and large quantities of plutonium were spread in the environment. Read an eyewitness account of the crash here.

Uusaqqak Qujaukitsoq explains the situation of the people displaced from the present location of the Thule Air Base aboard the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise. (Photo courtesy Greenpeace)

In 1995, the Danish government admitted some responsibility and paid US$15.5 million to the 1,700 Danish and Greenlandic locals who had worked at the Thule Air Base and were exposed to high levels of radiation from the incident.

The Greenpeace log says Qujaukitsoq and other local hunters said that "they are now catching animals with deformities that they have never encountered before, including seals without hair."

Activists from the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise approach Dundas Mountain which lies off the coast of the Thule Air Base in northwest Greenland. August 7, 2001. (Photo by Nick Cobbing courtesy Greenpeace)

A settlement of 17,000 kroner (roughly $2,288) was offered to each plaintiff in August 1999, with collective damages of 500,000 kroner ($67,294). The Inughuit, seeking 238 million kroner ($32 million), rejected the offer.

The case continues before the Danish Supreme Court. In September 2002, the United States agreed to give back by the end of the year Dundas, a town that had been absorbed by Thule. Locals believe this is a good first step but do not want to stop there, the Greenpeace log explains.

Local politician Axel Lund Olsen, who is deputy mayor of Qaanaaq and principal of Qaanaaq School, said, "If one day a war begins, people are afraid that if a bomb would hit Thule Air Base, all of the food we eat from the sea would be destroyed."