The American public received a firsthand look at the treatment a Kansas missionary couple have received while hostage in the Philippines.
Gracia and Martin Burnham looked gaunt, and Gracia fought back tears during excerpts of an interview aired on CBS's "48 Hours" television news program Monday night.
"This is no way to live," Gracia Burnham said. "There is no way to take care of yourself. Last night, I woke up with severe chest pains, and there's nothing you can do. You just lay there and you're in pain. You can't sleep."
The Wichita couple were surrounded in the jungle by armed members of the Abu Sayyaf, the militant Muslim group holding the couple hostage in the Philippines since May. The footage was taken from an interview originally aired on a Filipino cable station late last year.
Meanwhile, activists Monday had a candlelight vigil on the Statehouse grounds in Topeka to remember Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and the Burnhams. The couple's family planned to watch the news segment.
Gracia Burnham told Filipino journalist Arlyn de la Cruz that she is always hungry and has sores from poor nutrition.
"Each time they release someone," Gracia Burnham said, "they tell us 'We're going to go out, and we're going to tell your story. You're going to be out of here really soon.' And then the weeks pass and the months pass and then another hostage goes out, and 'we're going to tell your story ..."'
Cruz, now a CBS consultant, is a reporter for Philippine TV's Net 25. She traveled in disguise to Basilan Island where the Burnhams are.
The couple's family has urged the government to work for their release. U.S. Special Forces troops have arrived to help train Filipino soldiers battling Abu Sayyaf guerrillas. The group has been linked to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.
The U.S. forces aren't there to fight - that is forbidden by the Philippine Constitution - but some could end up in combat zones. Although they would be observers, they would still be allowed to carry arms in self-defense.
Philippines president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo told "48 Hours" there are no longer any links between al-Qaida and the Abu Sayyaf. She also said that the terrorist group rarely talks about Muslim rights any more.
"It's all about money," she said.