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17 December 2002 |
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COPENHAGEN, Dec 17 (AFP) - The United States has formally asked Denmark to allow a US radar station on Danish-controlled Greenland to be used in plans to develop a controversial missile defence shield, the government said Tuesday. "It is a request that we are going to study very carefully with Greenland's politicians," Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen told journalists, refusing to say when he would give a response to Washington. The US request, the Danish leader said, concerned the technical upgrading of the Cold War-era Thule base, in the northwest of the Arctic island, thought to be one of the major listening posts required for the shield to be operational. US President George W. Bush has made the so-called "son of star wars" system a cornerstone of his national security policy, despite criticism at home and abroad amid fears the project will destabilize arms control efforts. The original "star wars" project was originally put forward by former US president Ronald Reagan, but mothballed until Bush's term. Rasmussen and his liberal-conservative coalition are known to be favourable to the US plan, seeing it as a "peace project" but insisting that Russia be involved in the shield, which would use "friendly" missiles to intercept incoming missiles. Moscow has vehemently opposed the plan since Washington withdrew from the bilateral 1972 Anti Ballistic Missile (ABM) treaty, doing away with a linchpin in arms control in order to go ahead with development of the missile defence shield. "The fear that some have, that this project could lead to a new arms race, should be rejected," Rasmussen said, backing up Bush's line that the shield is an insurance policy against attacks by so called "rogue states." Danish participation in the project is seen as crucial, but Greenland residents generally oppose the US plan amid concerns it will put their island at the centre of a new conflict. Greenland recently voted in a pro-independence regional government vowing to pursue greater autonomy for the island, especially over defence and foreign policy, currently controlled by Copenhagen. The island's parliamentary leader for foreign and security policy, Josef Motzfeldt, will travel to Washington on Thursday with Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moller to discuss the US plans, said opposition Socialist People's Party spokesman Villy Soendal. "This anti-missile system presents the biggest challenge to security policy since the Cold War, risking a new arms race snowballing to China, India and Pakistan, if this shield ever becomes reality," Soendal warned. The Thule base, built in 1951 as an early warning station in the event of a Soviet nuclear missile strike on the West, still provides a surveillance operation for the northern hemisphere. The Danish government has expressed willingness to discuss with Greenland a defence agreement reached with Washington in 1951 and outlining the status of the Thule base, while saying it sees no need for it to be amended.
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17 December 2002 |
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For your information, the Danish foreign minister Per Stig Møller today went to Washington for a meeting with Colin Powell, where USA formally will ask Denmark's permission to upgrade the US radar at Thule for use in the missile defense. Officially, the Danish government has not taken the decision to allow upgrading the radar. But today, Danish prime minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said on national radio that the Danish government is positive, and that the American missile defense project is a "project of peace". Josef Motzfeldt from Greenland's home rule will accompany Per Stig Møller. The newly elected Greenland home rule opposes the lending of the Thule radar, if 1: it endangers world peace and 2: unless Denmark and US re-negotiate the 1951 defense agreement, which granted the US unlimited use of the Thule base in the first place. Josef Motzfeldt is a member of the IA party, who are opposed to the American military presence and Danish colonial policy. Greenland was a Danish colony in 1951. Today, Greenland has home rule - except for the foreign policy and for Greenland's underground resources, which are owned by Denmark. The Danish government has promised to include Greenland in all the negotiations, but only as an observer. The government has also promised the parliament that a decision will not be taken without debate in the parliament and the press. At the same time, a group of Greenland hunter-gatherers have sued the Danish state for forced expulsion from the area of the military base, when it was established in 1953. The Danish High Court will give a ruling some time next year. The hunter-gatherer's lawyer, Christian Harlang has asked the government not to make any further decisions on the base until the verdict, but it is doubtful whether that has any legal carriance. The Danish opposition in the parliament has raised a series of questions after the American proposal. Until now, two successive governments have declined to answer inquiries because there was no formal, US proposal. The two main opposition parties, who formed the government until a year ago, have not taken a formal decision yet. They are inclined to follow USA, but opposition politics and a strong Danish opposition to star wars outside parliament just might change that inclination. The Danish peace movement is fully occupied with preventing Danish participation in a war against Iraq, but an anti-star wars initiative does exist, and the matter might get more urgency now. Rune Jørgensen |
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