Papua New Guinea Prime Minister criticizes Biden’s comment about cannibalism

Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape was critical of President Joe Biden’s comments last week that linked his country to cannibalism, Reuters reported. He urged Biden to clarify the comments in a statement released on Sunday.

“President Biden’s remarks may have been a slip of the tongue; however, my country does not deserve to be labeled as such,” read the statement from Marape.

During a campaign stop in Scranton, Pennsylvania, last week, after visiting a missing-in-action war memorial, Biden discussed his uncle’s plane being shot down near Papua New Guinea during World War II. While speaking, Biden seemed to insinuate that his uncle, Ambrose Finnegan, was victimized by cannibals after it was shot down.

“He flew single-engine planes, reconnaissance flights over New Guinea. He had volunteered because someone couldn’t make it. He got shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals in New Guinea at the time,” Biden said. “They never recovered his body, but the government went back when I went down there, and they checked and found some parts of the plane.”

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“I urge President Biden to get the White House to look into cleaning up these remains of WWII, so the truth about missing servicemen like Ambrose Finnegan can be put to rest,” Marape said.

Papua New Guinea is located north of Australia in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. During World War II, the island was the location of a vital string of battles between the United States and the Empire of Japan between 1942 and 1945 as part of the New Guinea campaign.