WASHINGTON -- The Kansas missionary who survived 377 days of
captivity in the Philippines jungle said Wednesday that indictments of her
kidnappers "a positive first step" toward justice.
Gracia Burnham, who met with President Bush at the White House and lawmakers on
Capitol Hill, said Bush is battling her captors and other terrorists to make
the world safer for her children.
"He just told us that they were going to continue this fight," she
said. "I agree wholeheartedly with everything that he said."
White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said Bush wanted to offer comfort,
condolences and thanks to the Burnham family.
"She has been a marvelously strong and optimistic woman with a wonderful,
upbeat outlook," Fleischer said. "I think the president's going to
enjoy just putting his arm around her, spending some time with her."
She and her husband, Martin, and a Filipino nurse were the last hostages held
by the Muslim separatist group Abu Sayyaf, whose leaders were indicted Tuesday.
"The men who abducted us and held us, who murdered some and mistreated
others, who kept us running and starving in the jungle, are criminals and
deserve to be punished," Burnham said seeing the president.
Burnham was shot in the thigh in the military rescue operation last month that
killed her husband and nurse Ediborah Yap. Considered a top target in the
United States' war against terrorism, Abu Sayyaf is said to have ties to Osama
bin Laden's al-Qaida terror network.
Five alleged leaders of Abu Sayyaf are under U.S. indictment, although none is
in custody. Burnham said the indictments make her "hopeful that it is a
positive first step toward bringing them to justice."
Her husband was kind to their captors, thanking them and wishing them a good
evening each night as they chained him to a tree, Burnham said.
"But even though Martin was kind to them, we never forgot who the good
guys were and who the bad guys were," she said.
Her work as a missionary is "in transit" and will be set aside for
now, she said, adding that her children -- ages 11, 12 and 15 -- "have
changed drastically" in the year since she and her husband were abducted
from the resort where they were celebrating their 18th wedding anniversary.
"My mission is going to be to raise three neat kids; they need a full-time
parent, and I'm it," she said.