2024-04-22 12:41:52
The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea has downplayed comments by Joe Biden suggesting that his uncle had been devoured by cannibals in this country, seeing it as a “moment of confusion” for the American president, several media reported on Monday.
• Read also: His uncle devoured by cannibals: Biden causes astonishment with a family story
“There are sometimes moments of confusion,” said James Marape, also stressing that relations between the two countries were stronger than a simple “moment of vagueness”.
“I met him four times, and he always had warm feelings for Papua New Guinea,” said Mr. Marape, specifying that Mr. Biden had “never talked regarding Papua New Guinea.” Guinea to evoke cannibals.
Last week, Joe Biden caused astonishment following telling a family story, that of his uncle Ambrose Finnegan, killed in New Guinea during the Second World War.
The president said the uncle’s body was never found “because there were a lot of cannibals” in that area.
However, official military documents indicate that Ambrose Finnegan died at the same time as two other soldiers when his plane crashed in the Pacific Ocean for unknown reasons. A fourth occupant was rescued, but the other three were never found.
Cases of cannibalism have historically been documented among a small number of tribes in remote areas of Papua New Guinea. This means that the country is subject to clichés that are as obsolete as they are stubborn, which it has been trying to get rid of for decades.
Kohl, Mitterrand, Macron…
Judging that “there are much deeper values in our relationship than a statement, a word, a headline”, Mr. Marape asked Mr. Biden to focus instead on the elimination of unexploded ordnance, inherited from the Second World War, which still litter the archipelago.
“I urge President Biden to ensure that the White House focuses on cleaning up these remains (…) so that the truth regarding missing service members like Ambrose Finnegan can be restored,” the Prime Minister wrote in a press release published on Sunday.
During a mine clearance operation carried out in 2014 on the island of Bougainville by Australian and American troops, 16 tonnes of war munitions were destroyed.
These comments from Mr. Biden regarding his family history follow a series of gaffes that the American president has recently made.
In February, Mr. Biden spoke, during a campaign event, of a conversation he had in 2021 with former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, who died in 2017.
A few days earlier, he had already mentioned an exchange, supposedly in 2021, with the former French president François Mitterrand, whom he would have confused with Emmanuel Macron.
Mr. Biden’s detractors, first and foremost Donald Trump, himself aged 77, have repeatedly expressed doubts regarding the senility of the American president, aged 81, and his ability to lead a second term. .
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