What She Saw

Gracia and Martin Burnham were working as missionaries in the Philippines when they were abducted in May 2001 by the terror and kidnap gang known as Abu Sayyaf. More than a year later, Philippine soldiers swooped in to save them, but Martin and another hostage, Ediborah Yap, were fatally shot during the ensuing firefight. Now home in Kansas, Gracia has found herself in the cross fire again over her memoir, In the Presence of My Enemies. Even before the book was released in the Philippines, reports emerged that Burnham charges a Philippine soldier with firing the shot that killed her husband and that members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) colluded with Abu Sayyaf. When troops brought them food, she writes, "We were told it was because [Abu Sayyaf leader Abu] Sabaya was wheeling and dealing with the AFP general of that area over how to split up any ransom that might be paid." Elsewhere, she recalls wanting to ask President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo "about how her military was on the take." The AFP has denied numerous past allegations of collusion, and a spokesman called this one "unbelievable." "Preposterous," said Congressman Rodolfo Albano, though Arroyo pledged to again investigate the military's conduct.

Burnham tells TIME she wrote the book to answer questions about her time in the jungle and to honor her husband, "who got me through the ordeal." Her critics, she believes, did not read the book, in which she qualifies collusion talk as what she heard from her captors and other hostages, or what she thought in moments of despair. She says the book shows "what rats the Abu Sayyaf were," and that they "are to blame for the whole thing," no matter who shot her husband. Otherwise, she asserts, "I told the story as I saw it."