US troops are set to end an anti-terrorist mission in the southern Philippines, leaving in the lurch two American Christian missionaries, who begin their second year as hostages of Abu Sayyaf guerrillas.
Martin and Gracia Burnham are both ill and starving in the malarial jungles of Basilan island, beyond help from a 5,000-member Filipino military hostage-rescue task force getting advice from 1,000 US troops.
With the US presence set to end on July 15, the couple's ordeal raises questions about the outcome of the larger US-Philippines joint military effort against international terrorism.
The Kansas couple, based in the Philippines for 15 years, checked into the western island resort of Dos Palmas last year to celebrate their 18th wedding anniversary.
On May 27 the ruthless guerrilla group Abu Sayyaf, direct descendants of slave-raiding Muslim tribe, attacked the resort and took 20 guests, including the Burnhams, and staff to their southern island stronghold.
The Abu Sayyaf, branded as a terrorist group by US President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks, then beheaded more than a dozen other captives, including US tourist Guillermo Sobero.
President Gloria Arroyo agreed last November to host US troops to help Bush's fight against global terrorism amid an outcry by Filipinos against kidnappings.
The arrival of US Special Forces in Basilan in February fuelled hope of a swift rescue for the Burnhams, as clashes became more frequent and dozens of fleeing rebels were killed or arrested.
But Arroyo kept the world's mightiest army on a tight leash, mindful of constitutional limits and local political sensibilities.
Instead of a direct combat role, she sought and got counter-terrorist training, intelligence, and help in easing the island's poverty.
The New Tribes Mission website, which keeps a daily count of the days its missionaries have spent in captivity, acknowledges "that the best interests of US and Philippine government officials are not always the best interests of Martin and Gracia."
US Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman General Richard Myers visited Basilan last month and said he was satisfied with the broad progress of the anti-terror effort there. But he had no good news for the Burnham's three young children, farmed out to relatives in Wichita.
A more recent visitor, US Army Department Undersecretary Les Brownlee, admitted "We're not there yet."
Abu Sayyaf leader Abu Sabaya has mocked the US effort. "The superpower is helpless," he told local radio by telephone last month.
"How embarrassing."
Filipino officials had stressed early on that the US troops were not there to rescue the missionaries, held with a Filipina nurse, Ediborah Yap.
Their objective is to deny Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda terror network a possible Southeast Asian base from which to launch attacks after it was rooted out from Afghanistan.
"The coming of the US troops to Basilan had not the specific object of freeing the hostages but for training" local troops, Arroyo said last week.
"For that objective, they have been successful. We have been fighting terrorism for many years in southwest Philippines and they have been there only for four months, this is a short period."
Basilan's tropical jungle is a formidable wall. The Abu Sayyaf also enjoys considerable local support from the impoverished Muslim population.
Despite official denials that ransom had been paid, the Burnhams' relatives have admitted they made a deal in March -- only to see the gunmen renege on a pledge to free the captives.
"We know how they feel," said Major General Glicerio Sua, head of a Filipino military hostage rescue task force.
"The only advice we can give is to pray for a happy ending."
(China Daily May 27, 2002)
