Papua New Guinea PM reacts to Biden’s claim that ‘uncle was eaten by cannibals’

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape says Papua New Guinea should not be labeled cannibals and urges the United States to clean up the Pacific coast after President Joe Biden’s comments about his missing military uncle A remnant of World War I.

Marape’s office said in a statement late Sunday that Biden “appeared to suggest that his uncle was eaten by cannibals after being shot down over Papua New Guinea during World War II.”

“President Biden’s remarks may have been a slip of the tongue; however, our country should not be labeled as such,” Marape said in a statement.

“I urge President Biden to have the White House investigate the cleanup of these World War II relics so the truth about missing service members like Ambrose Finnegan can be put to rest.”

Last year, the United States signed a defense cooperation agreement with Papua New Guinea, while China signed a security pact with neighboring Solomon Islands, as it competes with China for influence in the region.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi met Marape in the capital Port Moresby on Sunday to forge closer economic ties, while Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese arrived in the capital this week to commemorate World War II history.

Biden has previously mentioned his personal connection to Papua New Guinea’s wartime history during a visit to Australia, telling the story of his uncle who was killed in a plane crash in May 1944.

Biden raised the possibility that his uncle may have been the victim of a cannibal after visiting a missing war memorial in Pennsylvania last week.

Historians say Papua New Guinea was crucial to the U.S. campaign across the Pacific to liberate the Philippines in World War II, while Australia says wartime history shows its northern neighbor’s renewed strategic importance.

However, the impact of the war remains sensitive for Pacific Islanders.

Marape said his country was “unnecessarily drawn into a conflict they did not cause”.

He said Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands were still littered with wartime human remains, plane wreckage, shipwrecks and tunnels, as well as remaining bombs that were still taking their toll.