Kidnapped couple’s jungle nightmare enters second year

By Jim Gomez

Associated Press

ZAMBOANGA, Philippines — Gunfire would send the American couple scurrying for safety, never losing grip of each other’s hands as they ran through the misty southern Philippine jungles that have been their prison for exactly a year.

Martin and Gracia Burnham, Christian missionaries from Wichita, Kan., have prayed and cried quietly together. They’ve watched in grief as their captors erupted into yells of "Allahu Akbar!" ("God is great!") after hearing radio reports of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States.

The Burnhams’ ongoing nightmare — which began May 27 last year when they and 18 other people were abducted from a southwestern Philippines island resort — is described by former hostages as a story of unquestioning faith, love and agony under the specter of death.

Every time Philippine troops attacked the Burnhams’ captors, Abu Sayyaf rebels that want to create an Islamic state, "Martin would grab Gracia by the hand as they ran for cover. He would never let go, even if his other hand was being pulled and strained by a rebel guard chained to him," said Reina Malonzo, a nurse held hostage five months with the couple.

"They were always praying," said Malonzo, who was freed in November.

Gracia Burnham, 43, wept often and worried about her three children, said Sheila Tabunyag, another nurse seized by the rebels and freed in November.

"Gracia always sets a goal of being freed every other two months. Before I was released, she told me her final goal was to be freed on or before Dec. 25, and she would not make a wish again after that," Malonzo said.

On Martin’s 42nd birthday last year, he missed hearing a greeting from his children over a local radio station, Tabunyag recalled.

"We asked if he’d heard them," she said. Martin mumbled that he had not, and tears welled in his eyes.

The Burnham’s three children — Jeff, 15, Mindy, 12, and Zach, 11 — now live with their grandparents in Rose Hill, Kan. They say they never expected their parents to be gone this long.

"I remember thinking, ‘Why would anyone want to take my parents?’ " Mindy said recently. "We thought they’d be right back."

The children have glimpsed their thin, exhausted parents on television news clips and heard from them sporadically in letters. But the correspondence ended months ago.

On Sunday, Martin Burnham’s father, Paul, led a prayer for his son and daughter-in-law at a church service in Rose Hill, telling parishioners to show love for the couple’s captors.

"God is allowing these things to perfect our faith, to make us stronger in our faith," he told churchgoers. "It humbles me to realize Martin and Gracia are going through this. I don’t know if I could."

The longer the Burnhams remain hostages, the less successful many here in the Philippines see a controversial deployment of American troops. About 1,000 Green Berets, military engineers and support staff are training local troops to better fight Abu Sayyaf and assist in the rescue of the hostages.

Left-wing groups in the Philippines oppose the U.S. presence, saying it violates constitutional restrictions on foreign troops in this former American colony.

The Americans have used surveillance satellites, helicopters and spy planes to help thousands of Filipino troops search thick jungles on Basilan Island, where the Burnhams are believed to be held.

A U.S. general likened the mission to looking for a "tiny tack in the backyard."

Finding the small, highly mobile rebel group and its captives "is really a very difficult task even with all of the intelligence resources that we’re willing to commit to it," said Brig. Gen. Donald Wurster, who heads American troops in the southern Philippines.

On Monday, Philippine officials ruled out any direct U.S. military role or ransom payments to free the couple, and President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo warned private groups from entering into ransom talks, saying they could lose their money without getting the hostages back.

More than 100 Filipino soldiers have been killed or wounded in a months-old offensive that has weakened the Abu Sayyaf’s armed force from more than 1,000 to fewer than 100 men in Basilan, a poor, predominantly Muslim province 560 miles south of Manila.

"We have sacrificed long to ensure (the Burnhams) would survive, because what’s the use of a rescue operation if the hostages end up dead?" said Philippine Col. Alexander Aleo, who is leading the search for the Americans.

Gracia and Martin Burnham were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary when they were kidnapped.

Corona, Calif. resident Guillermo Sobero, abducted with the Burnhams, was among several hostages subsequently beheaded by the guerrillas.

The Burnham’s religious group, the New Tribes Mission, has posted on its Web site pictures of the couple and a call to prayer for their freedom.

"They don’t deserve to be there even a second longer," Malonzo, the former hostage, said of the Burnham’s captivity. She remembers Gracia Burnham constantly encouraging her not to lose hope.

"If you’re there, you only think about not wanting to die, and wanting to go home," Malonzo said.