AUSTIN, Texas — Islamic rebels holding kidnapped American missionaries Martin and Gracia Burnham in the Philippines may be trying to strike a deal for their release, said a close relative in regular contact with the U.S. State Department.
The Burnhams’ hometown newspaper in Kansas, the Wichita Eagle, cited a Philippine newspaper in reporting that one of the couple’s kidnappers, who belong to the Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), sent a letter indicating that the group would surrender and free the hostages unharmed in exchange for amnesty.
Islamic ASG rebels snatched New Tribes Mission workers Martin Burnham, 42, and Gracia Burnham, 43, on May 27, 2001.
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