Danish, Greenlandic officials wrangle over Thule upgrade

SIKU CIRCUMPOLAR NEWS SERVICE

NUUK, GREENLAND – Greenlandic and Danish government officials met at Nuuk’s Katuaq conference centre this past Monday to discuss whether to support a U.S. request to upgrade the Thule air base in northern Greenland.

The U.S. wants Thule to become a National Missile Defense site that would be armed to ward off missiles from so-called “rogue” states.

Kuupik Kleist and Lars Emil Johansen, Greenland’s two representatives in Danish parliament, urged Greenlanders to support the plan to upgrade Thule.

“It’s OK to move ahead with the Thule upgrading – if Greenland gets something back as compensation,” Johansen said. “[But] Greenland has to be a equal partner in any agreement. There should be economic co-operation and more educational possibilities in the United States for Greenlandic youth.”

An agreement-in-principle to allow the Thule upgrade wouldn’t mean that the planned NMD system would necessarily go ahead, Johansen maintained. It just means that when the U.S. decides to move ahead with the system, it would be able to.

Hans Enoksen, the premier of Greenland, issued an unconditional demand for a renegotiation of the 1951 Danish-American Defense Pact – which first allowed the U.S. to set up operations in Thule – in exchange for Greenland’s acceptance of the NMD upgrade.

But the U.S. and Denmark have previously rejected this demand.

“Denmark and the U.S. must understand and respect that we govern ourselves and make our own laws here in Greenland and we have done so for the past 24 years. It’s time to renew the 1951 defence agreement,” Enoksen said.

But residents of Qaanaaq, the community closest to Thule, still have serious qualms about allowing any upgrade of the neighbouring air base.

“We know that during a war, the first thing is that the military areas and radar system are attacked. How are we going to be defended if there is a war?” said Axel Lund Olsen, Qaanaaq’s vice-mayor, during the NMD hearing in Nuuk.

“If the Thule air base isn’t going to be economically beneficial for the Qaanaaq municipality, then the Americans shouldn’t be in Greenland.”

Meanwhile, Thule has already become a key U.S. relay station for the war in Iraq.

Thule’s sophisticated satellite system is one of eight military communications sites around the world that link the U.S. forces – called the AFSCN network. Thule is the most important and busiest AFSCN station.

Thule’s “extreme northern position gives an almost ideal location for communication with satellite communication,” a fact sheet from the U.S. Air Force says.

“The satellite system is extremely important for the ongoing mission in Iraq,” Jeremy Eggers, the public relations officer for the Thule air base, told Greenland’s KNR radio.