Posted on 05/20/2002 10:04:16 PM PDT by HAL9000
US hostage very ill, on stretcher: military
ONE of two American hostages held by Muslim kidnappers in the southern Philippines is seriously ill and is being carried around on a stretcher, a military officer said Tuesday.
Colonel Alexander Aleo said he had received intelligence that the condition of American captive Martin Burnham had worsened. Burnham, his wife Gracia and a Filipina nurse are being held by Abu Sayyaf Muslim group in the jungles of the island of Basilan. "His health has deteriorated drastically," said Aleo who is in charge of military forces hunting the Abu Sayyaf in Basilan.
There have been previous reports that Martin Burnham was suffering from malaria but Aleo said it was possible he had contracted other diseases.
The Burnhams, an American missionary couple and Filipina Ediborah Yap were kidnapped almost a year ago by the Abu Sayyaf, a shadowy rebel group who have been linked to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.
Aleo said the three hostages were being held by Abu Sayyaf militants who were receiving assistance from local Muslim communities in Basilan.
Because of Martin Burnham's condition, the group is being hampered in its movements, Aleo said as he expressed hope that the military would soon pin down their location and rescue them.
Over a dozen Filipino hostages and one American, Californian Guillermo Sobero, have been killed by the Abu Sayyaf since they launched their kidnapping spree in May 2001.
More than 1,000 US troops have been deployed in the southern Philippines to help local forces in their operation against the Abu Sayyaf.
However the Americans are barred from taking part in combat and can only fire back in self-defense.
Why don't these kidnappers just leave them somewhere and notify the military?
Because they're terrorists. And terror is what they do best.
We can choose. We can either be terrorised or resolved.
I hope and pray, unto a cellular level, that these terrorists will be stopped - forever.
Sounds like a certain middleman decided to keep it for himself and headed to retirement with the bucks, or the terrorists are just claiming they didn't get it, or it wasn't delivered in the first place.
I'm probably just being angry and irrational, but what would the Philippine government do if we announce that we're sending in the troops whether they like it or not? One could argue, in a cost-benefit sense, that two lives aren't worth such extreme measures. Then again, shouldn't the war on terror be about drawing a line in the sand against these kinds of acts?
A few weeks ago I sponsored a woman from the Philippines into our church. She met and married her American husband in Manila, and afterward returned to her small village to spend a month with her family before moving here.
She only spent about a week there because islamic people nearby learned she had married an American and were threatening to kidnap or kill her. Her family told her to go, now. The village she was visiting and grew up in is on Mindanao.
It just enrages me that this sweet, kind woman I have come to love had her life threatened by these monsters.
I wish the Burnhams could be safe here now as is my friend. Though I suppose safe "here" is not as safe as one used to think....
I work with many Philippinos - some are very new here, and they all would support a huge rescue attempt by our troops.
The majority of people would welcome any effort to rid their country of these evil terrorists.
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