Greenland autonomy - Danish colony [UPDATE: 75.54% vote Yes]

[UPDATE: 7PM 26/11/2008:BBC reporting:
Final results showed that 75.54% voted in favour, while 23.57% said no - in line with predictions before the vote. Turnout was 71.96%.
Regaining rights
About 50,000 of the population are native Inuit.
Greenland gained self-rule in 1979, after previously being a colony and then a province of Denmark.
"It was time for us for to regain our rights and freedoms that were stolen from our ancestors," David Brandt, a former fisherman, told the AFP news agency.
Under the new arrangement, due to take effect in June next year, the island will take a greater share of its annual oil revenue, and Greenlanders will be treated as a separate people under international law.
If the proposals are enacted, Kalaallisut would become the official language, instead of Danish.
The plan would also see Greenland becoming less reliant on subsidies from Copenhagen. Currently these provide 30% of its GDP.
In 1985, the island left the European Union to avoid subjecting its fishing grounds to EU rules. ---UPDATE ENDS]Greenland has quite possibly the cutest government website in the world. But there's nothing particularly naive or innocent about the carve up the island's resources as the sun sets on home rule and "autonomy" (still within the Danish Kingdom) is set to begin.

Reuters reporting: The Arctic island has had home rule since 1979 but under the new law it will control its mineral and oil resources and eventually take charge of 32 additional fields of responsibility from Denmark, including justice and legal affairs, as it becomes economically viable to do so.

With a "Yes," Greenlandic will become the official language of the island, but the country will still be part of the Kingdom of Denmark after the new law is adopted on June 21 next year.

"With self-governance, we will establish the framework for future generations, it will be their job to handle the task of independence," Enoksen said.

The islanders control their own fate as Denmark has said Greenlanders alone must decide when to cut the final ties between the two countries after nearly 300 years of Danish rule.

A University of Nuuk poll earlier this month showed that three quarters of the island's 57,000 inhabitants favored more autonomy.

Now the dodgy bit:

Greenland is dependent on yearly subsidies of 3.2 billion crowns ($540.6 million) from Copenhagen, about 30 percent of its gross domestic product.
[...]
Denmark and Greenland have agreed to split potential oil income 50-50.

"Agreed"? Surely it's 100% Greenland's. Is the Danish government screwing them or what? Full-scale production is reportedly "decades away" - but they will be independent then... but have to give half of it to Denmark. Dodgy.

Mininnguaq Kleist, the head of the self-governance office of the Home-Rule Government, said Greenland was not yet ready to live without financial assistance from Denmark, at least not without sacrificing its current standard of living.

Enoksen said Greenlanders would have to be strengthened as a people before independence but he maintained that the discovery of oil offshore is not a prerequisite as the country is rich in minerals, with several mines already in operation.

"We have to work ourselves out of the shadow of colonial times. We can only do that through education," he said.

Educated enough not to sign "agreements" that lock the Greenlanders and their natural resources into that colonial situation I hope. The oil split sounds like colonial strong-arming that will have to be undone later on - like maybe the Danish have found a method of clawing back all the subsidies they have paid so far. Oil licenses are being granted:
English language Greenland government site.