Papua New Guinea leader takes offense after Biden implies his uncle was eaten by cannibals

 Papua New Guinea’s Prime Minister James Marape says his nation does not deserve to be labelled as cannibals after U.S. president Joe Biden implied that an uncle of his had been eaten by cannibals there during World War II, ABC News reports.

The U.S. president spoke at a Pennsylvania war memorial last week about his Army Air Corps aviator uncle Ambrose Finnegan, who was shot down over Papua New Guinea, which was a theater of heavy fighting, the report adds.

“They never found the body because there used to be — there were a lot of cannibals for real in that part of New Guinea,” Biden said, referring to the country’s main island.

Marape said in a statement on Sunday that Biden “appeared to imply his uncle was eaten by cannibals.”

“President Biden’s remarks may have been a slip of the tongue; however, my country does not deserve to be labeled as such,” Marape said in a statement provided by his office to The Associated Press on Monday.

“World War II was not the doing of my people; however, they were needlessly dragged into a conflict that was not their doing,” Marape added.

Marape also called on the U.S. to find its war dead in Papua New Guinea’s jungles and to clean up the wreckage of war.

“The remains of WWII lie scattered all over PNG, including the plane that carried President Biden’s uncle," Marape said, adding that his people daily live with the fear of being killed by detonated bombs of WWII. 

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