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Greenlanders celebrate ‘yes’ vote for self-rule

A child in Greenland’s capital Nuuk looks at a wall of posters promoting a “yes” vote to the proposal to give the Danish territory self-rule on Tuesday. More than 75 percent of people who voted in Tuesday’s referendum backed greater autonomy. PHOTO: AFP

Greenland celebrated yesterday its resounding “yes” to self-rule in a referendum, paving the way for independence from Denmark and giving it rights to potentially lucrative Arctic resources.

A total of 75.54 percent voted “yes” to greater autonomy, while 23.57 percent said “no.”

The self-rule plan hammered out with Denmark calls for the small, mostly Inuit population to take control over the local police force, courts and coast guard and to make Greenlandic, an Inuit tongue, the official language.

It gives Greenland rights to potential Artic resources and also sets new rules on how to split any future oil revenue between Greenland and Denmark.

The new status will take effect on June 21 next year, the island’s national day.

The head of the local government Hans Enoksen hailed the outcome in an emotional televised address, saying: “The tears are running down my cheeks.

“I say thank you to the people of Greenland for this overwhelming result. Greenland has been given a mandate to take another step” toward independence, he said.

In Denmark, Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen welcomed the result.

“The proposal on Greenland’s self-rule has broad political support in Greenland and in Denmark. I welcome the fact that the proposal was also overwhelmingly supported by the people of Greenland, as indicated by the high voter turnout,” he said in a statement.

Almost 72 percent of the 39,000 eligible voters cast ballots.

In Nuuk, fireworks lit up the night sky even before the final results were announced, and cafes and bars were crammed with revelers celebrating.

“It’s a day to celebrate, a historic day, one that I have waited for for years and years,” said Anne Sofie Fisker, a voter in her 60s.

“It was time for us for to regain our rights and freedoms that were stolen from our ancestors, a people of free and proud hunters whose lands were colonized” by Denmark 300 years ago, said David Brandt, a former fisherman.

Others however, including Johannes Mathiassen, feared the self-rule “is too early, and the country is not ready to assume these new responsibilities.”

Greenland became a Danish colony in 1775 and remained so until 1953, when Denmark revised its Constitution and made the island a province.

Under the 1979 Home Rule Act, Greenland got its own parliament and government, and self-determination in health care, schools and social services.
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