February 16, 2006
The following is a communication sent by Patrica A. L. Cochran, Chair of the Inuit Circumpolar Conference (ICC)
to Chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel. A copy was also sent to the leader of the Green Party, Barbel Hohn who
initiated the ban legislation in the German parliament. I realize this is a little old but when put together
with the article, “EU Politics”, I believed it reinforces the perceptions of Senator Milne in the previous
article.
18 October 2006
Chancellor Angela Merkel
c/o Deutsche Bundestag
Platz der Republik 1
11011 Berlin
Re: Consideration of Legislation on Seal Import Ban
Dear Chancellor and Green Members of the Bundestag,
As the lead spokesperson for the Inuit from Russia, Alaska, Canada and Greenland on matters of international
importance, I wish to strongly appeal to you to take into account our views before you cote tomorrow on your
proposed import ban on sealskins.
The proposed legislation would hurt our Inuit economy, our Inuit culture and our Inuit spirituality in
unimaginable ways. The EU parliamentarians have included some very weak language in their written declaration
about the desire to exempt the traditional Inuit seal hunt and resulting products from their proposed ban. It
is our strong view that this exemption will do nothing to protect us. Previous attempts to exempt us have
failed miserably and have only hurt us. Let me remind you that well-meaning organizations such as Greenpeace
helped wreak havoc on our culture and sustainable seal-hunting activities. Women who created and fashioned
sealskin handicrafts for sale were completely out of work and felt a sense of helplessness. Men, who were our
traditional hunters, had no skins to sell and had their self respect diminished. Greenpeace has since issued a
public apology to Inuit and claim that it was never their intent to hurt Inuit economies. But it did. Inuit are
still trying to recover from the 18983 EEC ban. It set a precedent and a very bad one at that.
The EU parliamentarians proposed Inuit exemption would carry with it much more moral weight if they had
consulted with us on it and asked us our opinion before drafting text about us. Perhaps we could have jointly
found a way to work this out. We could have educated them and they could have made their concerns known to us.
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