Family of U.S. Missionary Hostage Shaken by News
June 07, 2002 06:37 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The parents of U.S. missionary Martin Burnham, who was held hostage in the Philippines for more than a year, were shaken by the news of their son's death on Friday.
Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said on Friday Burnham was killed and his wife Gracia wounded in heavy fighting between Philippine troops and Muslim guerrillas holding them hostage for over a year.
But Arroyo said Gracia was safe. Military officials said she was in a military hospital in southern Philippines.
When asked to comment on their son's ordeal and his missionary work, Paul and Oreta Burnham said, "We can't talk about that right now."
The missionary's parents, who live in Rose Hill, Kansas, said officials from the Philippine government called with the tragic news on Friday morning.
"They have Martin's body and Gracia's undergone surgery. Her leg is wounded and she's in stable condition," Oreta Burnham said.
The missionaries' three children had been on vacation with their maternal grandparents but are headed to Kansas, Oreta Burnham said. The elder Burnhams have been caring for Jeff, 15, Mindy, 12, and Zach, 11, since the kidnapping.
State Department officials and the New Tribes Mission, to which the Burnhams belong, had no immediate comment.
The American couple's nightmare began on May 27, 2001, a day after they arrived at a beach resort off Palawan island to celebrate their 18th wedding anniversary.
Abu Sayyaf gunmen, riding in motor boats, raided the resort at dawn, grabbing the Burnhams, another American and 17 Filipinos and spiriting them away across 300 miles (480 km) of sea to their hideout on Basilan.
The rebels later beheaded the third American, Guillermo Sobero, and some of the Filipinos. Others were freed for ransom.
Martin, 42, and Gracia, 43, were the longest-held foreign captives in the Philippines since Muslim separatists began seizing hostages in the 1970s to press for an Islamic state in the south of the mainly Catholic former U.S. colony.
The United States has linked the Abu Sayyaf to Osama bin Laden and his al Qaeda network, the prime suspects in the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.
In what is viewed as the second front of Washington's war against terror, about 1,000 U.S. soldiers are participating in a joint exercise in the southern Philippines to upgrade the skills of Filipino troops in fighting the Abu Sayyaf.
Burnham family in 'deep sadness' over Martin's death
Posted: 6:45 PM (Manila Time) | Jun. 07, 2002
INQ7.net and Agence France-Presse
THE FAMILY of Martin Burnham expressed deep sadness over the death of the US hostage Friday in a rescue operation in the jungles of Zamboanga del Norte.
Burnham's mother, Oreta, told "Saksi" at GMA-7 that the couple's three children were still unaware of the fate of their father. "Gracia, we talked to your mom and we really remember you and are praying for you. We love you very much," Oreta Burnham said in a message aired over the network.
The Burnham children were staying with Gracia's parents, she said.
"The other grandparents are going to break the news soon. It's a hard situation. We don't know what our plans are," she said.
Martin and Gracia Burnham, from Wichita, Kansas, were kidnapped by Muslim Abu Sayyaf rebels in May last year while celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary at a western Philippine beach resort.
Philippine troops caught up with their captors Friday, triggering clashes in which Martin Burnham and the Filipina nurse, Ediborah Yap, were killed.
Muslim logic is astounding.