US President Joe Biden’s claim that his uncle, a World War II American pilot, was eaten by “cannibals” in Papua New Guinea after crashing on the Melanesian archipelago was echoed by Prime Minister James Marape on Sunday. It was categorically refused.
Biden’s comments angered a key strategic ally as China seeks to increase its influence and build alliances in the hotly contested region.
“President Biden’s statement may have been a gaffe. But my country does not deserve to be labeled as such,” Marape said in a statement. statement Published in Associated Press.
As Breitbart News reported, Mr. Biden last week at a war memorial in Pennsylvania commemorated his uncle Ambrose, an Army Air Corps aviator who was on the plane that crashed in territory then controlled by the Japanese. What he said about J. Finnegan sparked a diplomatic row.
President Joe Biden visits the war memorial in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Wednesday, April 17, 2024, and touches a wall near the name of his uncle, Ambrose J. Finnegan Jr., who died in World War II. . (Alex Brandon/PA Image via Getty Images)
“The reason we haven’t found any bodies is because there used to be a lot of cannibals in that part of New Guinea,” Biden said, referring to the country’s main island.
Marape said in a statement that Biden “seems to be suggesting that his uncle was eaten by cannibals.”
“President Biden’s statement may have been a gaffe. But my country does not deserve such a label,” Marape said Monday in a statement provided to The Associated Press by his office. .
“World War II was not the work of my people. But they were unnecessarily drawn into a conflict of their own volition,” the Prime Minister added.
File/February 3, 1943, a B-25 Mitchell bomber of the U.S. Fifth Air Force drops a “Paraflag” bomb on a Japanese airstrip near Dagua, New Guinea. (Photo credit: © Museum of Flight/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty)
File/August 1943: A Papua New Guinean soldier uses a Bren machine gun at a training range. He is a member of the local infantry fighting alongside the Allied forces against the Japanese army. (Keystone/Getty)
Marape urged Biden to continue to protect the country and “clean up” the remains of Papua New Guinea’s World War II victims “strewn across the land.”
“Perhaps, given President Biden’s comments and the strong reaction from Papua New Guinea and other parts of the world, the United States will continue to carry out World War II war crimes in Papua New Guinea, including the remains of fallen servicemen like Ambrose. “Maybe it’s time to find as many remains as possible,” he said.
This is not the first time Mr. Biden has disappointed Papua New Guinea, the largest island nation in the Pacific Ocean with a population of just over 10 million people.
In 2023, the city of Port Moresby declared a public holiday in anticipation of Biden’s historic visit, but the president canceled it at the last minute.
(LR) Prime Minister James Marape of Papua New Guinea, Prime Minister Mark Brown of the Cook Islands, US President Joe Biden, and Taneti Maamau of Kiribati after the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) Summit in Washington, DC, September 25, 2023. president. (JIM) WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
Police stepped up security, signs went up and people prepared to sing and dance in the streets. Expectations were high as this was the first visit by a sitting US president to a Pacific island country.
“I am very honored that he has fulfilled his promise to visit my country,” Prime Minister Marape posted on Facebook.
Those hopes were dashed when Biden canceled the trip to focus on domestic debt limit talks.
