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MANILA (Reuters) - Rescued American hostage Gracia Burnham said on Monday before flying home to the United States that Muslim guerrillas in the Philippines who kept her hostage for more than a year should be brought to justice. "During our ordeal, we were repeatedly lied to by the Abu Sayyaf and they are not men of honor. They should be treated as common criminals. We support all efforts of the government in bringing these men to justice," Gracia Burnham said, with tears glistening in her eyes and her voice trembling. She was rescued in southern Zamboanga del Norte province on...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Posted on Sat, Jun. 08, 2002 Burnhams: Waiting for final reunion A little more than a year after Martin and Gracia Burnham were captured by Muslim rebels in the Philippines, their long ordeal is over. The agony of waiting by family and friends, the fervent prayers offered for their safe return, the hopes raised and dashed by reports of their possible release have also come to an end. In a pre-dawn rescue attempt Friday by a Philippine army team, Martin was killed and Gracia was wounded. She's recovering in a Philippine hospital. "I cry with my voice to the...

WHAT YOU CAN DO Condolences and messages of encouragement for the Burnham family can be mailed to: New Tribes Mission, 1000 E. First St., Sanford, FL 32771. Rose Hill Bible Church, Rosewood and Main, Rose Hill, KS 67133. Send the family e-mails through New Tribes Mission at ntm@ntm.org. Donations can be sent to: Martin and Gracia Burnham Benefit Fund C/O: Rose Hill Bank P.O. Box 68 Rose Hill, KS 67133 Burnham Family Trust C/O: Valley View Bank 7500 W. 95th Street Overland Park, KS 66212

ZAMBOANGA CITY — A wounded soldier recalled on Saturday a heartrending sight moments after the bloody battle with the Abu Sayyaf bandit group near the town of Sirawai in Zamboanga del Norte on Friday. Gracia Burnham, wearing a black sweatshirt and gray trainer pants, sat slumped on the forest floor beside a hammock amid heavy rain, crying silently beside her dead husband, Martin Burnham. "Martin lay prone beside her," Army Scout Ranger Rodelio Tuazon told the Agence France Presse beside his hospital bed here. "She knew he was dead." Martin had apparently tried to protect his wife up to...

The Armed Forces deployed ground, air and naval forces yesterday to block all escape routes from Zamboanga del Norte and President Macapagal-Arroyo asked Malaysia and Indonesia to apprehend fleeing Abu Sayyaf rebels. As frustrated troops scoured the rugged terrain of Sirawai and Sibuco towns for Abu Sabaya, Isnilon Hapilon and other Abu Sayyaf leaders, the Chief Executive issued “search and destroy” for the guerrillas. “What you did to Abubakar is what you do to the Abu Sayyaf,” the President addressed soldiers during a press conference at the Seafront residential compound of the US Embassy, where she visited lone hostage survivor...

Kadena Air Base, Japan - (AP) -- What went wrong? Officials say it may take time to figure out the details of Friday's tragic rescue attempt in the Philippines. The body of dead missionary Martin Burnham is now at a US military base on the Japanese island of Okinawa, where an autopsy will be done to determine how he was shot. A Filipino hostage also died and Burnham's wife, Gracia, was wounded. She is still in the Philippines. The Pentagon says American forces helped plan the raid but it was carried out by Philippine troops. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld...

ZAMBOANGA – A wounded Filipino soldier recalled Saturday a heartrending sight of two US missionary hostages he found moments after a battle with Muslim rebels in the southern Philippines. Gracia Burnham, wearing a black sweatshirt and gray trainer pants, sat slumped on the forest floor beside a hammock amid heavy rain, crying silently beside her dead husband Martin Burnham. "Martin lay prone beside her," Army Scout Ranger Rodelio Tuazon told AFP beside his hospital bed here, recalling Friday's bloody military operation near the town of Sirawai. "She knew he was dead." He recalled the woman asking "if we got...

TALLINN, Estonia, June 7, 2002 – The U.S. Defense Department found out about the Philippine hostage rescue when the rest of the world did, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said. Rumsfeld told reporters traveling with him during a 10-day trip overseas that the Pentagon had no prior knowledge of the rescue mission in which American missionary Martin Burnham and Filipino nurse Deborah Yap were killed. Yap, Burnham and his wife Gracia had been hostages of the Abu Sayyaf guerillas on Basilan Island in the Philippines for more than a year. Gracia Burnham was injured in the attack and was evacuated...

ROSE HILL - Ever since Philippine rebels abducted missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham more than a year ago, people have gathered at their hometown church -- Rose Hill Bible Church -- at 6 every morning to pray for their safe release. Relatives and friends of the couple prayed again this morning -- even with the fresh and painful knowledge that Martin had been killed and Gracia wounded in a military rescue operation. They prayed, said Leslie Edgington, because "that's the way we speak to God." They did not show tears. They did not show anger. They said their faith...

MR. BOUCHER: Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. It's a pleasure to be here. I think you've all seen the statement that we just issued on behalf of the Secretary on the death of Mr. Burnham in the Philippines. We are of course deeply saddened -- QUESTION: I don't think that's out.QUESTION: Yes, it's out.MR. BOUCHER: It's out. Okay.QUESTION: The firewall is slower than normal.MR. BOUCHER: It's out electronically; is that it? Okay, let me just reiterate what the Secretary says. First of all, he and all of us here are deeply saddened by news of the deaths of Martin...

PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo reiterated her previous vow to crush the Abu Sayyaf after American Martin Burnham and Filipino Ediborah Yap were killed Friday afternoon in the course of military operations against the Abu Sayyaf in the hinterlands of the Zamboanga peninsula. “The terrorists shall not be allowed to get away with this,” she declared. “We shall not stop until the Abu Sayyaf is finished.” In Washington, US President George W. Bush said he was assured by Ms Macapagal that “justice would be done” to the terrorists. He said his counterpart had called him and that “she assured me that...

<p>MANILA, Philippines (CNN) -- A Filipina nurse and a U.S. missionary held hostage by Muslim rebels for more than a year have been killed during a rescue attempt, according to Philippine military officials.</p> <p>Martin Burnham, from Kansas, and Deborah Yap, a nurse, were killed in an intense firefight between the Abu Sayyaf rebels and the Filipino forces, according to the official.</p>

Killed Burnham, its wounded but released wife Friday June 07, 2002 - 8h27 GMT ZAMBOANGA (the Philippines), June 7 (AFP) - the American hostage Martin Burhnam was killed while his wife, blessée, were released at the time of an operation of help carried out by the army philippine Friday, indicated a General Filipino to the AFP. The General was not able to specify the gravity of the wounds of Gracia Burnham.

ZAMBOANGA City — American troops dispatched to Basilan for training and to assist Filipino soldiers in combating the Abu Sayyaf are ready to be deployed "anytime" to areas closer to the bandits’ camps, a US military official said yesterday. The Filipino soldiers stationed in Basilan said they are ready to go, hand in hand with their Green Beret advisers. Army 103rd Brigade commander Col. Alexander Aleo said his men are ready to secure the 160 US Special Forces personnel against possible attacks by the Abu Sayyaf when they move down to the company level, the second phase of the Balikatan...

Burnhams could be dead: US admitsBy Froilan Gallardo A ranking official of the US military forces who are helping the Philippine military rescue American hostages Martin and Gracia Burnham admitted Saturday that the couple could be dead. Brig. Gen. Donald Wurster, commander of the US forces in Mindanao, said the search for the Burnhams and Filipino nurse Ediborah Yap has not produced any encouraging leads on their whereabouts. This is the first such official admission by a US official on the search for the missionaries, who were kidnapped along with 22 others at the Dos Palmas resort in Palawan...

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Six Abu Sayyaf bandits were killed and several others wounded after government troops stormed over the weekend a terrorist hideout in Indanan town in Sulu, the military reported yesterday. But one still unidentified government trooper was killed while three others were wounded as they swooped down on Sunday on the lair of Abu Jamdain, alias Abu Pula, in Barangay Karawan in Indanan, according to Army Col. Romeo Tolentino. Abu Pula was among the Abu Sayyaf leaders who allegedly planned and carried out the kidnapping of dozens of European and Asian guests of two beach resorts on Sipadan...

The United States is asking the Philippine government to allow the deployment of one of its aircraft carriers — the Japan-based USS Kitty Hawk — in the Sulu Sea, a top US defense official said yesterday. Deputy Defense Secretary Paul Wolfowitz, who arrived yesterday for talks with President Arroyo, also said American troops are likely to remain in Basilan to continue helping the Phi-lippine military fight the Abu Sayyaf. Deploying the Kitty Hawk in the Sulu Sea would put Basilan within easy striking distance of the ship’s 70 combat aircraft. If the Kitty Hawk is deployed in the Sulu Sea...

MALACAÑANG will let the military consider a reported proposal by the United States to have American forces in Basilan join pursuit operations against the Abu Sayyaf. Acting Press Secretary Silvestre Afable Jr. said on Thursday President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo was not blocking the idea at the moment. He said the government will let any recommendations from the US "go through the proper channels." Afable’s statement came on the eve of the arrival in the country of US Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, who is set to meet with President Macapagal and local officials on the global war against terrorism....

ZAMBOANGA – Abu Sayyaf guerrillas said in a message broadcast Thursday they would free a Filipina nurse held captive for nearly a year. "We will free Deborah Yap," Muslim guerrilla leader Abu Sabaya said over Radio Mindanao Network here in a telephone interview. The station said the Abu Sayyaf leader called up late Wednesday, hours after the US government offered a 25-million-dollar reward for the capture of Sabaya and four other top leaders of Abu Sayyaf, which Washington describes as a terrorist group. The gunmen also hold hostage US Christian missionary couple Martin and Gracia Burnham in their southern...