The victims of the Greenland contraception scandal hear the emotional apologies of the Danish PM

Dozens of women in Greenland have heard the Prime Minister of Denmark, Put Frederiksen, officially apologizing for a scandal that involved thousands of inuit women who have forced contraceptive coils, as part of a controversial contraception program in the 1960s and 70s.

“Dear women. Dear families. Dear Greenland. Today, there is only one good thing to tell you. Sorry,” said Frederiksen to a crowded place in the center of the capital Nuuk.

During an emotional event, a woman stood with her return to the Prime Minister to protest, an imprint of black hand painted on her mouth.

“Sorry for the injustice that was committed against you,” said Frederiksen. “Because you were Greenlanders. Sorry for what was taken to you. And for the pain it caused,” she continued. “On behalf of Denmark. Sorry.”

Naja Lyberth, who was one of the first of the Inuit Groenlanders to talk about what happened, received a standing ovation when she was addressed to the event on Wednesday.

“If we want to go ahead, the excuses are crucial,” she said.

An official survey earlier this month concluded that at least 4,000 women had a coil located in 1970, corresponding to around half of Greeen women of childbearing age.

In more than 300 cases examined by the survey, women and girls as young as 12 had been equipped with a IUD without their knowledge or their consent.

Welcoming the apologies of Frederiksen and the investigation, Naja Lyberth was also essential that she had not explored any human rights violations.

Frederiksen recognized that many women had lived with trauma and physical complications and that some had not been able to have children.

Among the women named by the Prime Minister in her speech was Elisa Christensen, who carefully listened to the chief’s words and found her “very overwhelming” apologies.

Although she said she was still taking it, she told the BBC: “There was no mention of compensation, we are sad about it. It was almost like empty words.”

Before the apologies on Wednesday, Put Frederiksen published a declaration describing plans aimed at establishing a “reconciliation fund”, but it is not yet clear how many women it would be offered or when it would happen.

He also suggested that there would be payments to other Greenlanders who had been “subject to systematic failure and discrimination”, but have given no other details.

A pursuit requiring compensation was filed by a group of 143 women.

Greenland was a Danish colony until 1953, then became a county of Denmark, before obtaining a home regulation in 1979. However, Copenhagen supervised the health system until 1992, when Greenland took responsibility.

Aviaq Petersen was 24 years old when, during a routine medical appointment, a gynecologist told her that she had a IUD.

Now 59 years old, Petersen thinks that the aircraft was inserted without his knowledge, during an abortion 10 years earlier.

Later, the doctors found scars on her fallopian tubes, and despite the operations, she could not have children.

It was skeptical about the Danish apology, but hopes to see a process of official reconciliation unfold.

“You were not asked. You did not have the opportunity to express themselves. You are not heard. You have not been seen,” said Greenland Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen, adding that it was one of the darkest chapters in the history of the country.

The apologies of Frederiksen are involved in a meticulous examination of Denmark relations with Greenland, and increasing international pressure, in particular following the repeated requests of President Donald Trump to take control of the Arctic territory.

The DIU case is one of the many historical and current controversies, including forced adoptions that have damaged Danish-green relations.

More recently, another flash point has involved the elimination of their families’ inuit children following “parental competence” tests.

This week, a decision by the Danish authorities to separate a young Greeen mother from her newborn daughter – an hour after childbirth – was canceled after the case caused indignation.

For Elisa Christensen, the official apologies from Denmark brought roller coaster. “The little girl in me, for the first time she felt that she had a little hug of the company.

“But for the adult Elisa, I don’t know (how) I use these apology. Where are the children and the grandchildren I should have?”