Sorry for eating your people: PNG tribe
Thursday August 16, 2007

Fiji's High Commissioner to PNG, Ratu Isoa Tikoca accepted apologies from the descendants of Papua New Guinean cannibals who killed and ate four Fijian missionaries in 1878.

Ratu Isoa accepted the apologies at a reconciliation ceremony near Rabaul in PNG's East New Britain Province yesterday in front of thousands of people.

"We at this juncture are deeply touched and wish you the greatest joy of forgiveness as we finally end this record disagreement," Ratu Isoa said.

Sunday Times.au reports that PNG's Governor-General Paulias Matane told the crowd he appreciated the work of the early Fijian missionaries in spreading Christianity in the islands region.

The ceremony marked 132 years since Methodist ministers and teachers from Fiji arrived in the New Guinea islands region in 1875 headed by Englishman George Brown.

In April 1878, a Fijian minister and three teachers were killed and eaten by Tolai tribes people on the Gazelle Peninsula.

Brown directed and took part in a punitive expedition that resulted in a number of Tolais being killed and several villages burnt down.

His actions caused a storm of protest in the Methodist Church.

Official investigations by British colonial authorities in the Pacific cleared him of criminal charges.