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Rumsfeld: Hostage Rescue Was 'Understandable'
Friday, June 7, 2002
By Jim Wolf
Reuters

Gracia Burnham was treated for a "non-life threatening" gunshot wound in the leg at Camp Nevarro in Zamboanga City after being rushed there by a Filipino military helicopter, Davis said. She was being flown to Manila for further treatment.

WASHINGTON -- Reuters
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said a decision by the Philippines to try and free a U.S. missionary couple held hostage by Muslim kidnappers was "understandable," despite the death on Friday of one of the missionaries in the rescue operation.

Martin Burnham, 42, was killed Friday and his wife Gracia, 43, was wounded, when Philippine troops, trained by the United States, clashed with the guerrillas during the rescue bid in Zamboanga del Norte province on southern Mindanao island.

Rumsfeld noted that the American couple had been held hostage for months and that both had been ill -- factors that influenced the rescue operation.

"The Burnhams have not been well and they lived in captivity a long time and it seems to me that the attempt to save their lives was understandable," Rumsfeld said. "Every hostage situation is a dangerous situation and I have no more facts than you do at the moment."
(More: Macon.com News Source)
2002 © Reuters, Ltd.

Dan