Arctic Conference is pure politics of interests on the backs of the Arctic peoples

The Society for Threatened Peoples (GfbV) criticised sharply the Arctic Conference, which begins today, Wednesday, in Berlin. The human rights organisation said that it is a matter of pure politics being carried out on the backs of the Arctic peoples. "Even if the Inuit Aqqaluk Lynge from the Inuit Circumpolar Conference is involved as a native person at the Conference, one should be under no illusions: the interests of the indigenous peoples are being trampled on”, said the GfbV consultant in Berlin. Lynge was invited to Berlin after a long dispute. There was originally no intention of involving any indigenous people at the Conference.

Germany is evidently only concerned with making a profit from the wealth of the Arctic, which will soon be free of ice. But instead of the German government taking part in a "cold war” over the resources, Reinke called for it to take action to make sure that this ecologically very sensitive region will not be callously destroyed and the means of life of the native inhabitants removed. They are in any case the losers in the run for resources. The climate change, which is taking place in the Arctic three times as fast as in more temperate zones, is causing the ground to be literally melting away under their feet. However in the battle over frontiers and access to the presumed resources they are being systematically overlooked.

At the Arctic Conference, which is being organised at the Foreign Office in Berlin by Germany, Denmark and Norway, the question which must be dealt with in particular is that of how the conflicts of interest over the Arctic resources can best be resolved. The Foreign Office states that the Conference is also concerned with questions of cooperation between the five adjacent states, which like Germany are also interested in access to the Arctic.