Arctic+and+Greenland

Self-Rule Introduced in Greenland

The Arctic island of Greenland is working on becoming independent from Denmark by taking the steps towatds self-rule. The move is in presecion of a referendum on greater autonomy that took place in November. To make this possible, we will begin to see Greenland take a greater share of revenues from its natural resources. The local government is also going to take control over the police and the courts. There is going to be a change of their official language to Greenlandic. Denmark has the final say in defence and foreign-policy matters. The new self-rule system is going to take the Arctic island closer to it's independence. Inuits, the native population of Greenland will be treated as a separate people under international law.

Independence supports the hope that an increase in revenues from minerals will help fund a final breakaway from Copenhagen. But alnalysts are saying that Greenland's new leftist government are going to leave the push for independence behind. The newly elected Prime Minister Kuupik Kleist has promised to focus on solving the big social problems, such as alcoholism, domestic violence and a high suicide rate. This could become complicated considering Greenland currently relies heavily on subsidies from the Danish government. They provide 30% of its GDP.

Site: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/8111292.stm