27 January 2004
ICC president urges caution on missile defence

The United States wants to set up advanced radar systems to intercept ballistic missiles coming from enemy states. But Aqqaluk Lynge says there are concerns about the environmental impact in the Arctic.

Lynge says debate has been raging in Greenland since the U.S. formally asked
to use the Thule airbase.

Lynge, the president of Inuit circumpolar conference Greenland and an elected member of the Homerule government, says Greenlanders first want the Americans to clean up the mess they left at military sites on the island.

"Especially in the Thule airbase area, their dumps and toxic materials and things that have damaged the environment," he says.

Lynge says as neighbours, Greenland and northern Canada need to be in close contact about the U.S. missile defence program.

"We should all be very careful on that issue because what it ends to be the missile defence, is that it will militarize space which is a big problem in the world right now," he says.

Earlier this month, Canada announced it's ready to negotiate an agreement on joint missile defence.

Premier Paul Okalik says Nunavut also has concerns. "I support my colleague from Greenland in making sure that the mistakes that were made in the past aren't repeated over again," he says. "So we're cautious  because there's PCB sites that we're still trying to clean up."

Okalik says all three northern premiers want to be kept up-to-date on the file. He says if the missile defence system goes ahead then Nunavut wants to benefit from possible economic spinoffs.

Okalik says one of the territory's abandoned mines might be a potential site for the project.