December 16, 2001, The New York Times, Filipinos `Will Shoot' To Rescue 3 Hostages, by Seth Mydans,

December 16, 2001, The New York Times, Filipinos `Will Shoot' To Rescue 3 Hostages, by Seth Mydans, 

KAPATANGAN GRANDE, Philippines — Philippine soldiers say they will come in shooting when the moment arrives to rescue two American missionaries and a Filipino nurse who have been held hostage in dense jungle here for nearly seven months.

"This is the endgame," said Lt. Gen. Roy Cimatu, chief of the armed forces southern command. The rescue could come at any time.

The three hostages -- Martin and Gracia Burnham of Wichita, Kan., and Deborah Yap -- are the last of dozens who have been seized for ransom over the last two years by Abu Sayyaf, a Muslim separatist group.

"The first bullet shot will be for the leader," said Cimatu as he visited this mountain command post on the southern Philippine island of Basilan. "The second will be for the one holding Martin."

Burnham, he said, the prize hostage for whom the rebels are said to have demanded $2 million, is constantly leashed to one of his captors by a rope attached to a handcuff.

The general said a special "rescue group," trained by U.S. military advisers who have visited recently, is prepared to rush the hostage takers "once visual contact is made."

But he added: "I would like to emphasize that our No. 1 concern is the safe rescue of the hostages. I think we have the right strategy: patience. That is the key. Sooner or later they will lower their guard and we will strike them."

Abu Sayyaf, formed a decade ago by a hard-line Muslim who had studied in Saudi Arabia, is known for its brutality and for the mass kidnappings of Filipinos and foreigners that have earned it millions of dollars in ransoms.

"They started as preachers but they ended up in abductions, kidnappings, rape and beheadings," Cimatu said.

The rebels seized 63 hostages last May, including the two Americans kidnapped at a beach resort on the island of Palawan and a group of nurses seized at a hospital on Basilan. Sixty have been freed, mostly after firefights.

A third American hostage, Guillermo Sobero of Corona, Calif., was beheaded by the rebels a month after he was kidnapped.

Cimatu contended that the rebels were linked to al-Qaida, the terrorist group led by Osama bin Laden. But the evidence he offered was circumstantial and his assertion amounted to inference.

He cited contacts in the late 1980s with Abu Sayyaf and other Muslim groups by a brother-in-law of bin Laden as well as reports of a recent visit to Abu Sayyaf by two men described as Arabs who apparently trained them in the use of explosives.

"I cannot give a specific connection," the general said. "I can only surmise from their origins. As far as my operations here, I could not directly link them. But based on our operational data the probabilities are very strong."