Greenland seeks to break silence around child sexual abuse

Yahoo – AFP, Camille BAS-WOHLERT, June 25, 2019

The Greenland County Council Hall in the capital Nuuk, where the government says
it aims to eradicate sexual abuse of children by 2022 (AFP Photo/Christian Klindt Soelbeck)

Copenhagen (AFP) - In Greenland, the scourge of child sexual abuse has emerged as a pressing concern with nearly one in three having suffered abuse in their childhood, and efforts to combat it hampered by a persistent conspiracy of silence.

The sparsely populated autonomous Danish territory is confronted with major social problems, including high levels of suicide and alcoholism. The government highlights alcohol and hash abuse as the number one health concern.

But the recent airing of a documentary on sexual abuse on Danish public television has put the spotlight on the issue, renewing the Arctic island's commitment to tackling abuse of children.

"I was about six years old... I was woken up in the middle of the night because someone was touching me. My hands were tied, my knees were tied and he abused me," said Anna-Sofie Jonathansen in the documentary.

She is a resident of Tasiilaq, a remote village in the south-east where the documentary said nearly half of adults under 60 years of age have been sexually abused as children.

Tasiilaq also reflects another troubling statistic with as many as one in five people committing suicide.

Greenland has one of the highest suicide rates in the world, averaging one per thousand inhabitants.

"Many children are victims of sexual abuse and experience violence in their homes. For many of them, this leads to a life full of problems and anxieties, which leads many young people to commit suicide," Jonna Ketwa, president of the NGO Save the Children in Greenland, told AFP.

The pervasiveness of the sexual abuse is heavily linked to consumption of drugs and alcohol and it's more common in violent homes, according to Sara Olsvig, director of UNICEF in Greenland, who also says there is a lack of knowledge of children's rights.

But complicating matters is that among Greenland's 56,000 inhabitants the silence around sexual abuse remains deeply embedded.

"For many of them, that's just the way it is," Rikke Blegvad, a teacher interviewed in the documentary said.

Naasunnguaq Ignatiussen Streymoy, another resident of Tasiilaq, started a petition for better support for victims and said she had received death threats for putting the village in a negative light.

"There will be consequences because it's not okay to portray their perfect village in this way," she said in the documentary.

Modest improvements

According to a public health study published in April, 20 percent of Greenlanders born after 1995 were sexually abused as children. That share is less than half that of the previous generation when 43 percent of people born between 1975 and 1979 suffered abuse.

And there are signs that the conspiracy of silence is starting to show cracks as more Greenlanders come forward to report abuse to authorities.

In 2018, 436 complaints of sexual offences, 50 more than the previous year, were filed in Greenland, of which 20 percent concerned minors. That represents eight complaints per 1,000 inhabitants compared with 1.1 complaint per 1,000 in the rest of Denmark.

"Within the police and the prosecution authority we are seeing that, for the moment, the taboo around sexual abuse is ever so slightly being challenged," said Greenland Police Chief Bjorn Tegner Bay in his annual report.

But he also noted that "there is a long way to go", and in some areas there were no reports of abuse against children, indicating that the culture of silence still reigns.

Calls for help

"Changes should come from inside," said Aaja Chemnitz Larsen, who represents Greenland in the Danish Parliament.

"But we need to collaborate with qualified people to gather more knowledge and have a permanent investment," she added.

Chemnitz Larsen has requested the aid of Copenhagen to help address the issue.

Even Greenland's local parliament, traditionally staunchly mindful of its autonomy, has turned to Denmark, which normally only handles state functions and foreign and defence policy.

In Nuuk, the government which is sovereign in terms of economic and social policy has put in place a strategy with the aim of eradicating the sexual abuse of children by 2022.

To this end, it intends to launch information campaigns, particularly aimed at raising awareness on children's rights and respect of physical integrity.

The government has also promised to provide care for all those affected, but to deliver on this promise it needs to encourage social workers to move closer to the territory's most remote areas, where sexual abuse is more frequent.

"There are not enough psychologists or social workers to help... families and victims. We are not even close to being able to help predators," Ketwa from Save the Children in Greenland, told AFP.

Danish protester: 'No one would care if a Palestinian was hit with a rifle'

Andreas Ias says his treatment by Israeli soldier is nothing compared to the systematic violence carried out on Palestinians

guardian.co.uk, Harriet Sherwood in Ramallah, Friday 20 April 2012

Israeli soldier Shalom Eisner strikes Danish protester Andreas Ias with his rifle 

Without the video, all Andreas Ias would have to show for his weekend bicycle ride in the Jordan valley would be two stitches and a slightly swollen lower lip – plus a hardening anger about the treatment by Israeli soldiers of Palestinians.

But a few seconds of footage uploaded to YouTube catapulted the 20-year-old Danish activist into the media spotlight, drew statements from the Israeli prime minister, president and chief of staff, led to the disciplining of an Israeli army officer, and prompted debate over the use of video cameras as a weapon of modern warfare.

Nevertheless, Ias – not his real name – is dismayed that in the aftermath of him being struck in the face with a soldier's rifle, so little attention has focused on what he describes as the routine aggression, harassment and displacement suffered by Palestinian villagers in the area.

"It has been framed in the media as the 'Danish incident', as though this is not how the IDF normally act," he said, swathed in a red keffiyeh in a Ramallah cafe. "But what happened to me is nothing compared to the systematic violence carried out on Palestinians. This is not a single incident, it's what we see every day. But it's very difficult to move the focus from me to the issues of the Palestinian struggle in the West Bank."

While volunteering for the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) in the West Bank over the past six weeks, Ias says he has witnessed "a process of ethnic cleansing that has been going on since the start of the occupation".

"I've seen people whose homes have been demolished in the middle of the night by dozens of soldiers, people who are left with nothing. I've seen Bedouin villages without running water or electricity next to Israeli settlements with total control over water resources. I've seen people denied their basic human rights and any hope for the future. You can't experience that without it changing you."

Last Saturday, a group of 150-200 Palestinians and international activists set off on a bicycle ride through the Jordan valley to visit villages in an act of solidarity. As they reached route 90, the main road running north to south through the valley, they found their way blocked by the Israel Defence Forces.

According to Ias, the soldiers said the cyclists could not proceed "for security reasons". There was a standoff. "We were very peaceful, singing songs, clapping hands. It was a good, empowering experience, people were happy," he said.

But as one of the organisers moved forward, Lieutenant Colonel Shalom Eisner, the deputy commander of the Jordan Valley Brigade who was in charge of the operation, removed his rifle. "He obviously wanted us to move back, but he didn't say anything."

According to Ias's account, a Dutch activist was pushed to the ground and a Palestinian man was struck from behind. Then Eisner slammed the base of his rifle into Ias's face. "I fell to the ground. I was surprised and disoriented. I didn't feel any pain until later."

Eisner, who was forbidden to speak directly to the media, gave a different version of events to colleagues and friends. He said the activists were armed with sticks and were violent, and that one had hit him, breaking a finger. But, he added, "these stories do not interest the chief of staff or my commander. We know the history of these anarchists. They came with sticks and broke my hand – but no one will tell and film that."

He said his actions were necessary. "It was a two-minute confrontation so, yes, it's true that some pictures look bad, but I used a weapon in a [non-lethal] manner and I did not put anyone's life in danger."

Eisner – who was seen in the video wearing a type of kippah associated with the national-religious settler movement – and his colleagues claimed that the clip uploaded to YouTube was edited to distort the incident and cut out violence by the activists. Ias rejects this, saying the organisers have offered to hand over the unedited footage to the Israeli media to prove there was "no aggression, no attempt to violence, not a single stone picked up".

The military, which routinely films such incidents, mainly for intelligence-gathering, has not produced any footage.

Ias was taken to hospital in Jericho for treatment, later rejoined the activists, and "went home feeling it was just another incident in a lot of incidents I have seen in the past few weeks. I didn't expect it to have any consequences at all."

But the video was picked up and broadcast by Israeli television on Sunday – the same day the Israeli authorities launched a big security operation to prevent hundreds of international activists landing at Ben Gurion airport to attend a week of solidarity actions in the West Bank.

By Monday, the video had appeared on countless news websites and the story was running in papers round the world. The prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, the president, Shimon Peres, and the military's chief of staff, Benny Gantz, all made statements saying Eisner's actions were unacceptable and in breach of Israeli military standards of conduct.

On Wednesday, Eisner was dismissed from his post for two years although he has been allowed to remain in the army.

"The incident that took place in the Jordan river valley is extremely serious and in absolute contradiction with [IDF] ethics," an army spokesman said. "There are different bodies, some of them anarchists and belligerent war instigators, disparaging our soldiers to create a buzz in the media, but we must maintain IDF ethics and avoid getting dragged into a provocation."

Eisner told colleagues: "I did not expect this to be the decision. I thought they accepted my version of events and understood it. They showed me the door out. I need to digest the decision and then plan my future."

He said he did not "accept this as a moral failure in any way [but] it could have been a professional mistake to use a weapon in front of the cameras".

Ias is taking legal advice on the possibility of a civil suit against the officer.

After finishing high school in Aarhus, the young Dane worked in factories and hotels to save money for his trip to the West Bank. He arrived in mid-February, and will leave in three weeks when his tourist visa expires. He attended a two-day workshop in Ramallah to learn about his legal rights as an international activist, non-violent protest and Palestinian culture. He did not plan to spend any time in Israel.

"The ISM differs from other international solidarity groups in that we are willing to try to actively oppose the occupation, rather than just monitor it," Ias said. "We will use our bodies to intervene, to challenge. So if we see soldiers trying to grab Palestinians at a demo, we will hold on to them to make the arrest difficult."

But, he added: "I've not been presented with one single incident of ISM members being violent. I've not seen any statements espousing terrorism. The ISM is founded on principles of non-violence."

He said the international community had a duty to intervene when wrong was being done. "The colour of my skin and my nationality gives me great privileges. We have to use that to stand in solidarity with the Palestinians."

The Israeli government rejects the image of the ISM as peace activists. "They parade themselves as a non-violent movement but they refuse to condemn suicide bombings or attacks by Palestinians on innocent civilians," said the government spokesman Mark Regev. "They educate their members in an aggressively anti-Israel position. They never criticise human rights abuses on the Palestinian side."

This, Regev stressed, did not justify the actions of the Israeli soldier.

The incident triggered wide debate in Israel about activism and the power of the camera. B'Tselem, an Israeli human rights organisation, has been giving cameras to Palestinians for several years, encouraging them to document the behaviour of Israeli soldiers. The IDF has trained around 100 combat soldiers to use video cameras, partly to identify protesters, partly to counter what they see as activist propaganda, and sometimes to use in internal investigations.

Many commentators have pointed out that the IDF would not have taken action over the incident had it not been filmed and broadcast round the world. But, Ias said, his nationality and skin colour contributed to the attention. "The global media wouldn't care at all if a Palestinian had been hit in the face with a rifle."

Israeli army Lt. Col. Shalom Eisner hits an unidentified

 activist with an M-16 rifle, April 14, 2012. (Photo by: AP / ISM)

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Moody’s Fired by Danish Banks as Investors Show Support

Bloomberg, by Frances Schwartzkopff - Apr 19, 2012

Denmark’s biggest banks are firing Moody’s Investors Service as they win assurances from some of the country’s biggest investors that the opinions of ratings companies hold limited value.

Moody's Investors Service Inc

. headquarters in New York.

 Photographer: Scott Eells/Bloomberg

Nykredit A/S, Denmark’s biggest mortgage lender and Europe’s largest issuer of covered bonds backed by home loans, terminated its contract with Moody’s on April 13, citing its “volatile” views. Danske Bank A/S (DANSKE)’s mortgage unit Realkredit Danmark A/S, the country’s second-largest home-loan provider, dropped Moody’s in June. Jyske Bank A/S, Denmark’s second- biggest listed bank, is looking into ending its dealings with Moody’s, according to Steen Nygaard, its head of treasury.

“They have just crossed the line for fairness,” Nygaard said in an interview. “It’s not just that we have an opinion and if they rule against us, we are mad and walk away. It is about the fundamentals where we simply cannot follow Moody’s arguments.”

Moody’s in June criticized Denmark’s $470 billion mortgage- bond industry, the world’s third largest after the U.S. and Germany, for failing to curb refinancing risks fueled by a mismatch in funding and lending maturities. Since then, Nykredit’s benchmark index of Denmark’s most-traded mortgage bonds has risen 6.3 percent to a record, signaling investors are disregarding the warnings.

Commercial Relationships

“Moody’s does not comment on its commercial relationships,” Jessica Sibado, a Moody’s spokeswoman, said in a phone interview yesterday. “Moody’s considers Denmark as having one of the strongest covered bond frameworks in Europe. However, since 2009, Danish covered bonds have been impacted by the weakening issuer credit strength” and “increasing refinancing risks,” she said.

Moody’s generated 31 percent of its $2.3 billion in sales last year from Europe, the Middle East and Asia combined, it said March 12. Nykredit and Jyske declined to reveal what they paid the company for their ratings.

Nykredit A/S , Denmark’s biggest mortgage
 lender and Europe’s largest issuer of
 covered bonds backed by home loans, 
terminated  its contract with Moody’s on
April 13, citing its  “volatile” views. Photo-
grapher: Ulrik Jantzen/Bloomberg

“It’s not that ratings don’t matter. Of course they do,” said Inger Huus Pedersen, head of fixed-income investments at Hellerup, Denmark-based pension fund PKA, which oversees about $27 billion in assets. “These mortgage bonds, we feel pretty secure about. It’s an old system that’s gone through a lot, which is why I’m quite secure about the system. History has shown us that ratings agencies make mistakes as well.”

Senate Report

Investors, companies and governments are starting to question the role of the ratings companies following their failure to identify some of the imbalances that led to the global financial crisis of 2008.

According to a 2011 U.S. Senate report, both Standard & Poor’s and Moody’s adjusted the way they graded mortgage-backed securities after Goldman Sachs Group Inc., UBS AG and at least six more banks pressured them. When the ratings companies changed their assessments in July 2007, it helped trigger the financial crisis, the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations said in April last year.

S&P’s decision to strip the U.S. of its top credit grade in August was followed by gains in the nation’s Treasury debt. U.S. government securities with maturities longer than a year have returned 4.2 percent, including reinvested interest, since S&P’s Aug. 5 downgrade. The Bank of England said March 27 there was “little market reaction” to Moody’s decision to cut the outlook on its Aaa rating to negative.

Tougher Stance

In Denmark, Moody’s has been tougher on mortgage banks than other rating companies. It ranked adjustable-rate bonds issued by Nykredit Aa1, compared with S&P’s AAA grade. Nykredit’s issuer rating at S&P is A+, its fifth-highest grade, with a stable outlook. Moody’s ranks the lender A2, its sixth-highest rating, with a negative outlook.

“Moody’s has shown a harsh stance on banks ratings compared to the other agencies,” said Marc Stacey, a fund manager at BlueBay Asset Management Ltd. in London, which oversees $42 billion in credit. “If Moody’s upcoming announcements show that they are an outlier, compared to where the other two rating agencies are, then you may find the Moody’s rating being dropped by more and more issuers.”

Nykredit fired Moody’s amid a review of 114 financial institutions in 16 countries. Moody’s said it may downgrade banks as much as three levels. BRFkredit A/S, another Danish mortgage lender, ended its dealings with Moody’s in October.

‘Follow Suit’

Moody’s in June criticized Denmark’s
 $470 billion mortgage-bond industry,
 the world’s third largest after the U.S.
 and Germany, for failing to curb refinancing
 risks fueled by a mismatch in funding
 and lending maturities. Photographer:
 Scott Eells/Bloomberg

“If larger banks begin to look at the Danish banks and follow suit, this could potentially reduce the impact of the rating cuts and simplify matters for investors,” Prateek Datta, an analyst at Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc, said today in a note to investors.

“It’s not a matter of the rating being X or Y,” Soeren Holm, group managing director of finance at Nykredit, said in an interview. “It’s a matter of volatility in their methods and approaches, and it’s a matter of the value for investors.”

Denmark’s two-century-old mortgage market has moved away from traditional, fixed-rate 30-year loans and started offering adjustable rates in 1996 and interest-only loans in 2003 to attract more customers. The country is still struggling to emerge from a recession triggered by a burst housing bubble in 2007. A regional banking crisis claimed three lenders last year.

“We agree there are risks, but they are less than when the house prices were in a bubble phase,” Nygaard said. “We cannot see the huge risk to the Danish economy. Jyske Bank is much stronger today that it was in 2007.”

Creditor Losses

Moody’s, which published its first guide to securities in 1900 after being founded by John Moody, cut Jyske Bank and five other Danish lenders last year after the government allowed Amagerbanken A/S to fail, passing losses on to senior creditors. Jyske is rated A2, with a negative outlook.

Danske Bank A/S’s mortgage unit
 Realkredit Danmark A/S, the country’s
 second-largest home-loan provider,
 dropped Moody’s in June. Photographer:
Ulrik Jantzen/Bloomberg

Moody’s rates Denmark’s government debt Aaa, with a stable outlook. The country is one of only 12 in the world to enjoy the top credit grade at Moody’s, S&P and Fitch Ratings.

While Denmark’s government debt is half the euro-area average at 44.6 percent of gross domestic product in 2012, the European Commission estimates, its private debt is the world’s highest. Household debt reached 310 percent of disposable incomes in 2010, according to Exane BNP Paribas. Danes’ savings, while high, are mostly “locked up” in hard-to-access pension and real estate assets, central bank Governor Nils Bernstein has said.

Adjustable-rate loans, as well as loans that delay principle payments by as much as 10 years, make up more than half Denmark’s outstanding homeowner debt, according to the Association of Danish Mortgage Banks. Bernstein has urged the industry to phase out interest-only loans, which he says erode economic stability.

Pressure

Foreclosures jumped an annual 32 percent last month to a 17-year high, after Denmark’s economy fell into a recession in the second half and house prices sank an annual 8 percent in the fourth quarter.

“What Moody’s is doing is putting pressure on the system, and that is not necessarily a bad thing,” said Peter Lindegaard, head of investments for Danica Pension, a unit of Danske Bank. Still, Lindegaard said Danica, which holds 20 billion kroner in mortgage debt, won’t exit Nykredit’s bonds after the lender dropped Moody’s.

“We think we know as much as Moody’s about how the system works,” Lindegaard said in an interview. “We still deem them a very secure investment.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Frances Schwartzkopff in Copenhagen at fschwartzko1@bloomberg.net.

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christian Wienberg at cwienberg@bloomberg.net.

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