INJUSTICE AGAINST GREENLAND’S INUIT CONTINUES!!!
A Call for Action By Niels Madsen, Co-founder of the 16th August Union
Introduction:
Here, we publish the most recent statement from Niels Madsen, Co-founder and Vice Chairman of the 16th August Union, outlining his struggle to gain the right for the native Inuit people’s mining and selling of rubies which has been well established and historically practiced under Greenlandic law… until, that is, the recent “discovery” of high quality gem material.
The Union has been struggling for the right to have access to these resources on their Native lands, a right guaranteed under Article 32 of the Greenland Mineral Resources Act. A right they have used without difficulty up until 2007. Standing against them is the Greenlandic Bureau of Mining and Petroleum, and secondly, Truth North Gems (TNG), the Canadian Mining Company that has been working closely with the colonial government to try and secure exclusive rights to these same resources.
Interestingly enough, a press release dated March 2, 2009, outlines how TNG recently had a management shake up. Buried in the press release is a very interesting fact. Greg Davison, VP of Exploration, “resigned…to pursue other business opportunities.”
For those who are new to this issue, Greg Davison was a key figure in the tainting of the relationship between TNG and the Inuit which resulted in the 16th August Union’s first public action, as covered when I broke this story in September, 2008. When I tried to speak with Davison personally to corroborate Madsen’s serious accusations, I was directed to the CEO of TNG, who I interviewed on this blog.
It is doubtful that TNG will ever apologize to the Union as I suggested in my editorial comment, True North Gems and the Greenland Ruby, Time for Truth and Reconciliation. They are much too aligned with the current colonial authorities to ever admit error.
Madsen and his fellow Union members are not opposed to large scale mining; they simply want to secure the rights to mine on sites where large scale mining is not viable. Perhaps TNG’s new personnel, Rejane Amaral and Iain Groves, will begin to work sensibly with the local Inuit population to build trust and possibly create a win/win situation.
Greenland will have partial independence from Denmark on June 29th, 2009. At that point, how resources are handled in Greenland will be entirely different.
~ Marc Choyt, Publisher.
Greenland: “Kalaallit Nunaat,” The Land of the People
Introduction:
The 16th August Union is a small miners association in Greenland that was founded by local citizens after a group of Inuit collecting ruby out on their land were forcibly removed by the Home Rule Government in compliance with the wishes of an international mining company on the 16th of August 2007.
Their detainment and expulsion from long-standing village property is a violation of their native rights which are enshrined in tradition, and are guaranteed in the Constitution. The government is breaking its own laws.
For thousands of years, Greenlanders out hunting and fishing have gathered stones for building material, heat, sustenance, tools, weapons, and of course, for jewelry. The Greenland Ruby has been cherished by native people in art and culture for generations.
Now, the Home Rule Government of Greenland, under the direction of the remnant colonial government in Copenhagen, Denmark, is suppressing the rights and the initiative of the members of the Greenland Small Miner’s Association to work freely and trade in natural ruby.
Injustice
The Home Rule Law of 1978 was Step 1 in the devolution towards independence of Greenland. It was and is a “hometaking” of some of the areas comprising former colonial Danish political control, which are far-better managed in Greenland by the Greenlanders. Under Article 8, the law and its precedents ensure the people’s rights to ruby collecting for sales purposes, so as to encourage the local business, and to provide an income for the citizens. The population of Greenland has the fundamental right to its natural resources.
Under the Home Rule, surface mineral rights are governed through the Mineral’s Act, wherein the earlier Article 1 (§ 1) was superseded by Article 32 (§32) in which the keyword industrial was arbitrarily changed to commercial, meaning that mineral business requires a permit of some kind, depending on the circumstances.
Greenland’s Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum (BMP), in regulating mineral rights under Article 32, suddenly in 2007 began to interpret the statute in a manner hostile to the best interests of the local villagers in the ruby fields.
The BMP equates the word commercial with the outdated and misleading word semi-precious, a term in violation of international convention, resulting in an inaccurate and inappropriate exercise of Article 32.
Previously, the BMP had permitted mining and export of ruby by the Greenlanders, but in August of 2007, that changed dramatically with the harassment of the members of the Union; including: denial of prospecting licenses; and, denial of export permits.
The actions of the BMP are designed to serve the interests of a foreign mining company exploring for ruby at the expense of the citizens of the land, whose best interest they are paid to protect and serve.
21 June 2009
Home Rule self governing of Greenland by Greenlanders in Greenland takes effect on the 21st of June 2009, Independence Day.
Greenland is now advancing quickly towards Step Two in the devolution to Independence. In Step Two, the Home Rule will become even more self governing, taking over even more areas of control from the Danish Government.
As the very first issue, Greenland’s politicians are saying, “We want to take control and earnings from the underground mineral sector.”
The Third, and probably last, step in the devolution will very likely be total independence. Some have reckoned that might take another thirty years time. Others want it tomorrow.
One of the conditions imposed by Denmark for this Step Two, Self Governing, to happen, is that the Danish government, is required to go to the United Nations (UN), and explain that there most definitely is an indigenous Inuit population in Greenland after all, and that we demand and deserve the international recognition as an indigenous population.
Greenland was until 1953, a Danish colony. The United States governed Greenland from 1941 to 1953. Today, Greenland is a semi-autonomous zone under the control of Denmark. Local opinion in Greenland is that Denmark somehow convinced the UN that the Inuit race had died out, or was so mixed up in bloodline with the Viking Norse and, later, with the European whalers, that there no longer was a indigenous population on the island. This malicious attitude permitted the Danish conquerors to ignore the native rights of Inuit when it suited them.
Native Rights
Tradition and native rights have been violated. The government has broken it own laws.
Before the 16th of August 2007, it was well-known and widely practiced that the native inhabitants of Greenland had the common right to hunt, fish and collect minerals anywhere they pleased on their island, as it was a tradition. Wherever there isn’t an exclusive exploitation license for an operating mine with a fence around it for a specific mineral, Greenlanders enjoyed rights of access guaranteed by law and custom. Those exceptions are rare, indeed.
Unlike the U.S.A., or Canada, in Greenland we do not hold land as private property that we can buy and sell, or give to the next generation. There are no so-called mining claims, like in the “Wild West”, where they would shoot trespassers.
Communally, we all own the land (or does the land own us?!). Greenlanders have the right to take those minerals that we can hand mine and carry. Such as we always have done, like our fathers before us.
Something Has Changed
In 2004, the head of the Bureau of Minerals and Petroleum (BMP), and his staff, told the first management of the Canadian ruby exploration company about the right’s of the Greenlandic population to go about and collect ruby and hunt anywhere they wanted. The BMP made sure the mining company knew that the law permitted Inuit the traditional collecting, working and selling of the world-famous “Fiskenaesset Ruby” and Pink Sapphire. Take it or leave it… The company didn’t leave.
The BMP arbitrarily changed their minds and policy in 2007 without notice!
In co-ordination with the Canadian mining company, the authorities sailed an expensive police ship with crew and three (3) armed policemen and a BMP official down from the Capitol of Nuuk to the village of Fiskenaesset. From there, the BMP and police flew the last distance to the ruby fields in the Canadian exploration company’s helicopter to serve the Inuit a written order to stop all activity. The people were told to leave or face arrest. They had to leave their camp behind and walk home.
The “official reason”, according to the authorities (and TNG): five people collecting rocks, is too many! We say: “More than 56.000 people (population of Greenland) have the right!” Later, the five people were told to forget about it !?!
Call to Action
In response to the harsh and unacceptable treatment from the authorities, and the abrupt reversal in policy by the BMP without notice, the Greenlanders who were harassed on 16 August 2007 formed a citizen’s action group which has grown to become a small miner’s association.
This organization peacefully fights for the native rights of the Inuit to access their land in Greenland in the ways guaranteed by tradition and law, long before the Canadian mining company and the BMP decided to abuse the people
The 16 August Union has made its case known to the people through radio, television and newspaper. We have marched in the streets of the capitol. Our cause has been debated in the Home Rule Parliament and the Council of Ministers.
Most importantly, we are circulating a petition in support of our cause. It is linked below. Already, in only three weeks, over 3500 Greenlanders, in a population of only 57,000 souls, have signed. In addition, another 1000 people internationally have signed out petition on line and in print.
Please help us any way you can. Write your Representatives. Now!!!
We will carry our message to the United Nations and to the world at large. This year, we will continue to harvest the ruby God gave us and create beautiful jewelry for sale and trade. A special piece will be constructed for a special gift to the Monarchy of the Kingdom of Denmark to celebrate Greenland’s Independence Day on 21 June 2009. We seek funds to be used for a legal defense fund to protect the native rights of Inuit Greenlanders to access the ruby of Kalaallit Nunaat. We need pro-bono help.
Sign the Petition. Be there in Nuuk on Independence Day 21 June 2009.
Nuuk, the capitol of Greenland, means the “Heartland”, It was originally named Gotháb (Good Hope) in 1728 by Spanish-Norwegian missionary and founder Hans Egede.
Niels Madsen
28 February 2009
