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Sunday 05.02.2012

EU seal ban is cultural murder, says Greenland minister

Greenland's minister for foreign affairs Per Berthelsen says the ban should be brought before the European Union courts.

The European Parliament passed new legislation on Tuesday which bans seal product imports into the European Union.



There's an expemption for Inuit that allows for products from seals killed in connection with the traditional hunt to be traded.

Despite the exception, Greenland's minister for foreign affairs Per Berthelsen says is not satisfied with the ban, believing that the case should be brought before the EU courts.

"The ban is hurtful because we still have a large section of the population who are dependant on the possibility of selling their sealskins," Berthelsen told Sermitsiaq. "We can not continue building up a large surplus storage of seal skins, so in the end the ban could have tragic consequences for that side of our culture."

Berthelsen described the ban as cultural murder, and has called on the new government which will be elected next month in Greenland to take the case up with the courts governing the EU.

"The EU courts should look into whether or not this can be seen as cultural murder," said Berthelsen. "The ban will do a lot of damage to the traditional hunt we have in Greenland without offering alternatives for those people that are dependent on it."

According to the EU Parliament, the new legislation will be fully implemented by the end of the year.

The sale of seal skins from Greenland has fallen dramatically in recent years, with the 85,000 skins exported in 2004 being reduced to 44,000 in 2007.