The Danish Prime Minister Put Frederiksen apologized to the victims of the forced contraception campaign implemented in Greenland until 1992 on Wednesday, raising a major tension with the Danish autonomous territory.
“We cannot come back to what happened, but we can accept our responsibilities,” said the government’s chief in a statement. “This is why I would like, on behalf of Denmark, to say +sorry +”.
These apologies, requested by the victims for several years, have been positively welcomed.
“My customers are happy, it’s a big step,” reacted to AFP Mads Pramming, the lawyer of nearly 150 of them who pursue the Danish state for violation of their human rights and request compensation.
“It remains to be seen now if the State will recognize its legal responsibility and propose compensation. As long as it is not the case, I do not saber champagne, “he added.
“I am happy but it may be late,” said one of the survivors, Henriette Berthelsen. “It generates a lot of thoughts,” she said, without more comments.
“Like rape”
She was 13 years old when she was given an IUD for the first time, without any agreement being given.
Between the end of the 1960s and 1992, out of some 9,000 women of age to have children, more than 4,500 young Inuits suffered without their consent or, for minors, that of their parents, the installation of a IUD decided by the Danish authorities.
Many of them have become sterile following this intervention and the majority suffers from physical or psychological consequences.
The campaign aimed to limit births in the Arctic territory which, if it was no longer a colony, remained under the supervision of Copenhagen, worried about the high birth rate.
Since the first public testimony who has gone unnoticed in 2019, languages have been untied and many women have shared their history, denouncing the “colonization” of their bodies and demanding that Denmark recognize the extent of the provoked trauma.
Naja Lyberth was the first woman to testify.
She was 13 or 14 years old – her memory is hesitant – when she was summoned, with the other girls in her class, to go to the doctor.
“His tool penetrated me to insert the IUD. It was very cold and like stabs inside me. It was very very violent, ”she told AFP last year.
“It was like torture, like a rape.”
“Dark chapters”
This file is one of the many sensitive subjects, such as that of forced adoptions or the forced placement of Greenlandic children in Denmark, affecting relations between the two territories.
“We know that there are also other dark chapters linked to systemic discrimination against the Greenlanders,” said Ms. Frederiksen.
“My apologies, on behalf of Denmark, are also apologies for these other shortcomings for which Denmark is responsible, (by which) the Greenlanders have been treated differently and in a lower way compared to other citizens of the Kingdom,” she said.
Nearly 150 victims filed a complaint against Denmark and await the holding of a trial.
Danish apology intervenes when the United States tried, according to DR public television, to use litigation subjects between Denmark and Greenland to gain influence on Arctic territory.
Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen also apologized, the practice of forced contraception having partially continued when Greenland became responsible for his health system.
The Danish government’s heading said that any compensation would be envisaged once the conclusions of an independent commission of inquiry are given.
In 2022, the Danish government had compensated six Inuit, which had been separated from their families in 1951 and sent to Denmark to become the Danophone elite in Greenland, for a total amount of more than 200,000 euros.
