For islands' people, Danish ties more like a noose

Philadelphia Inquirer, The (PA) - Monday, June 11, 2001
Author: Andrea Gerlin INQUIRER STAFF WRITER
A quiet battle for independence is brewing in the remote Faroe Islands, home to fishing boats, sheep, 45,000 people, and a new dream of oil wealth.

The rocky, picturesque islands in the North Atlantic, halfway between Scotland and Iceland, have belonged for 600 years to Denmark , nearly 1,000 miles to the south. The Faroese have had their own parliament since 1948, but many of the inhabitants are clamoring for more.

"The Danish just see the Faroe Islands as a bunch of stones in the North Atlantic," said Hogni Hoydal, deputy prime minister and leader of the Faroese Republican Party. "But we feel a connection to this country and to our ancestors. We are prepared to defy [the Danes]."

The tension is escalating to uncomfortable levels. Last month, someone scrawled pro-independence graffiti on a monument to Danish King Christian IX in the center of the capital. In a civil Nordic society where people leave their doors unlocked, such a prominent act of vandalism was almost as alarming as a Molotov cocktail.

"I don't like what's happening now," said Lisbeth L. Petersen, the Unionist Party leader and a member of parliament who is opposed to independence. "It's not so pleasant. It's almost the same as it was in the 1940s, when we had debates over home rule."

Back then, a referendum on the issue succeeded by a tiny majority, and a new parliament went into session. But Danish King Christian X shut it down and sent a warship to the Faroes.

Since a 1948 agreement on home rule, the islanders have elected a parliament, collected taxes , and operated their schools, health system and social-welfare programs. But in judicial and foreign-policy matters, Denmark still rules.

Independence here would create the world's ninth-least-populous country. Vatican City is the smallest, with a population of 860.

Supporters of Faroes independence contend that Denmark is blocking sovereignty by threatening to abruptly cut off $120 million in annual aid, rather than end the subsidies gradually. But soon, independence supporters may have a powerful weapon: the prospect of oil riches in their backyard.

Oil has already been found on just the other side of the maritime boundary with Britain 100 miles away. Now 19 companies, including BP Amoco, Amerada Hess and Phillips, have moved the exploration north. They are investing $250 million to drill eight wells in Faroese waters over the next three years, beginning next month.

Anfinn Kallsberg, the Faroe Islands' prime minister, is expected to travel to Copenhagen for his next confrontation with aides to his Danish counterpart, Poul Nyrup Rasmussen. Kallsberg's aides say he will tell the Danes that the Faroes will assume more responsibility for police, the state church and the airport in return for lower subsidies.

It will not be an easy meeting. In negotiations this year, when Faroese ministers told Rasmussen they planned to hold a referendum on independence, he stormed out and said Denmark would end aid in four years instead of 12 years, as the Faroese wanted. The proposed referendum was later dropped.

"I don't think any Danish prime minister wants to see this happen during his time in office," Kallsberg said.

A spokeswoman for Rasmussen, Trine Hammershoey, said: "To get sovereignty, they have to give something to the Danes."

Though almost 200 miles from the nearest land, the Faroe Islands base the claim to independence on a long, proud history that precedes Denmark 's arrival. The first known settler was an Irish monk believed to have landed here perhaps as early as the sixth century.

The Vikings followed in the ninth century. Norwegian kings laid claim in 1262. When the Norwegian monarch united with Denmark in 1380, the Faroes came under Danish rule. After the Reformation, Denmark established a colonial-style trade monopoly over the islands until 1857. The Danes' exploitation of the Faroes during that period still rankles Joannes Patursson, a 17th-generation farmer whose family raises sheep in Kirkjubour, a small village of medieval ruins five miles from the capital and a traditional hotbed of the independence movement.

One of Patursson's ancestors founded two pro-independence parties a century ago. Another nearly lost the family farm and his life when he tore down the Danish flag during St. Olav's Day festivities in the 1920s.

Recently, Patursson talked independence and revolution over a lunch of lamb and boiled potatoes. He was joined by his retired parents and three workmen, who were replacing the traditional turf roof of their 900-year-old, black-and-red farmhouse.

"They want to keep this country as a cow so they can milk it whenever possible," the younger Patursson said, quoting his great-grandfather Pall, who tore down the flag. "For me, it is also a matter of pride to be able to say I am from the Faroes and we have our own country."

As recently as the 1930s, the Faroes did not have their own flag, and their language, derived from Old Norse, could not be taught in schools or used in church sermons.

When the Germans occupied Denmark in 1940, British troops protected the Faroes, and ties to Denmark were temporarily severed. That brief taste of freedom reignited the Faroese desire for independence and led to the Home Rule Act of 1948, which became the basis for subsidies a decade later.

The islanders have bitter memories of their last economic crisis. When fish prices crashed in the early 1990s, businesses overextended by Danish loans went bankrupt. Banks collapsed, and Denmark ordered the Faroese government to assume the debt. Unemployment reached 25 percent by 1994, and more than 5,000 people left.

Many blamed the Danish government, and during the next election in 1998, the Faroese elected their first pro-independence majority in the 32-seat parliament. The slim majority was formed from a fragile coalition of three parties and reflected some of the lingering divisions between people who favor independence and those who believe the 18 islands are too small to be a nation or fear for their economic security.

"In the end, I think people will be too frightened" to vote for independence, said Thora Augustinussen, 18, who is about to begin a free college education in art history in Denmark . "They will not want to give up their two cars and going on holiday."

The Faroese economy is valued at $1 billion, of which 43 percent is spent on public services. Kallsberg and his aides said that since 1998, they had used less than half the annual aid from Copenhagen and had saved the balance to help the islands through four to 12 years without subsidies, if necessary, as they seek full independence.

Prosperity is helping the process. The economy is growing at 6 percent a year, largely due to strong fish prices and larger catches. But if fish prices collapse again, the Faroese are optimistic about finding oil.

The oil companies are required to pay the Faroese government 2 percent of their revenues from any finds, in addition to taxes on profits. Under a 1992 treaty, Denmark has renounced its claim to the mineral rights.

Even if only one or two wells are productive, government ministers estimate they would have enough to replace the Danish subsidies. That would likely sway some of the population now resisting independence, such as students awaiting free college or elderly people collecting pensions, who support the Unionists and Social Democrats.

With oil, the Faroese government could accelerate its quest for independence. Supporters differ about remaining within the Danish monetary system or loyal to the Danish crown, but they agree about establishing their own courts, defense and foreign policy.

They want to join the United Nations and sign defense pacts. (Their only military force is a 100-person coast guard.) They believe a Danish radar station, an important facility for monitoring Soviet vessels during the Cold War, is alone worth more to NATO than the value of Danish subsidies.

Elections in Denmark and the Faroe Islands next spring will present another test. For election supporters, though, a referendum on independence cannot come soon enough.

"It's not a question of if we will have independence anymore," Hogni Hoydal said. "It's a question of how and when."

Andrea Gerlin's e-mail address is foreign@phillynews.com.