Posted on 06/08/2002 12:58:32 AM PDT by kattracks
A US hostage rescued from Muslim guerrillas in the Philippines said her husband wrote a letter to their three children before he was murdered by the rebels, according to a Filipino general.
General Ernesto Carolina, the most senior military commander in the troubled southern Philippines, told AFP on Saturday that Gracia Burnham told him that her husband, Martin, had a premonition he would die after their year-long jungle ordeal at the hands of the Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
"She felt that Martin had a premonition that he's not going to make it. Martin wrote a letter, it's for their children," said Carolina, who met Gracia at a hospital in Zamboanga city before her departure to Manila for medical treatment late Friday.
The contents of the letter, believed to be among the material recovered from the scene of the bloody rescue operation on Friday, were not revealed.
But Carolina quoted Gracia Burnham as telling him: "That letter is very important to me, give it to me."
Martin, 42, and Gracia, 43, both Christian missionaries, were abducted while vacationing on the western island resort of Dos Palmas to mark their 18th wedding anniversary.
Their three children were not with them at the time, and have since been repatriated and are living with their relatives in the United States.
Martin Burnham was killed by the Muslim rebels during the surprise military rescue attempt in the Zamboanga peninsula, an army commander on the ground told AFP.
Gracia was shot in the leg but freed in the raid while another hostage, Filipina nurse Ediborah Yap, was also killed.
Gracia informed General Carolina that on her return to the United States, she would "tell her children that our boys (the Filipino soldiers) tried their best in their rescue operation."
"She pressed my palm and gave me a sweet smile as she expressed her sincere thanks to all of us," he said.
US embassy spokesman Frank Jenista told AFP that the body of Martin Burnham was sent late Friday from Zamboanga City to a US military base in Okinawa.
A Filipino general had earlier said Gracia would accompany her husband's body, but Jenista said she was resting and recuperating in Manila before flying back to the United States.
"She has been in contact with her family by telephone and she is in remarkably good spirits," Jenista said.
President Gloria Arroyo has said she would visit the survivor on Saturday.
I am in total awe of this woman's strong spirit. I pray for her comfort and for her recovery.
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