‘My Nation Is Not Deserving of Such a Label,’ PM Marape Says in Response to Biden’s Remark About Cats in New Guinea
Sydney: Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape has criticized US President Joe Biden harshly for his recent remarks regarding his uncle’s disappearance near New Guinea during World War II, stating that his body could not be recovered “because there used to be a lot of cannibals—for real—in that part of New Guinea.”
In response to Biden’s statement, Prime Minister Marape said that his nation is not deserving of the moniker “cannibals,” according to the news agency Reuters.
In response to Biden’s remarks on his uncle, a missing military member, Marape also proposed that the US remove the World War II debris strewn around the Pacific.
In a statement released late on Sunday, Marape’s office said that Biden “seemed to imply his uncle was eaten by cannibals after his plane was shot down over PNG during WWII.”
In the statement, Marape stated, “President Biden’s remarks may have been a slip of the tongue; however, my country does not deserve to be labelled as such.”
The statement went on, “I implore President Biden to direct the White House to investigate clearing up these WWII ruins so the truth about missing servicemen like Ambrose Finnegan can be resolved.”
While China has a security agreement with the neighboring Solomon Islands, the US inked a defense cooperation agreement with Papua New Guinea last year amid rivalry with China to gain supremacy in the area.
On Wednesday, Biden made the comment that his uncle Ambrose Finnegan was shot down and that his corpse may never be located when speaking at the United Steelworkers Headquarters in Pittsburgh. He also made the suggestion that cannibals were to blame for this.
Additionally, they dubbed my uncle Ambrose Bosie. Then he joined the Army Air Corps. Prior to the Air Force’s formation, he flew those single-engine aircraft over combat zones for reconnaissance,” Biden had said at the United Steelworkers Headquarters in Pittsburgh.
There used to be a lot of cannibals in that area of New Guinea, he had said, adding, “And he got shot down in New Guinea, and they never found the body.”
