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'I feel like I've been stabbed in the back. I was here to help'
| Postcards from the road to hell... |
 THE British aid worker kidnapped and held for three days with her parents in Gaza, had a blazing row with her captors shortly before the family was released in a back street in the dead of night, she told The Times yesterday.
As the two Palestinian gunmen who had abducted Kate Burton and her parents, Hugh, 73, and Win, 55, prepared to video their captives as a condition of their release, she burst into a tear-filled rage demanding they be set free. âThe kidnappers were getting nervous and angry and started shouting at me,â she said. âThey told me I was being disrespectful, despite all the food and blankets theyâd given us. I got really mad. I screamed at him, âDo you want me to get down on my knees and say thank you, thank you?â
| Probably. They're Paleostinians, y'know... |
âI was exhausted and started blubbering crying and crying. I told them, âI came to work with these people and I feel like Iâve been stabbed in the backâ.â
| Whoa! That's never happened before, has it? |
Her comments came in the first comprehensive interview she has given since spending 58 hours as a captive. After a further debriefing with British intelligence officers, Ms Burton, an Arabic speaker who had been working with a Gaza human rights group, described how her outburst had briefly delayed their freedom as the kidnappers did not want her to look bad in the video. Ms Burton, 24, continued to show mixed feelings for her captors, who had treated the hostages well and even proudly shared pictures of their own children.
"Yup. That's my boy, Mahmoud!"
"He looks like a dynamite kid!"
"Yup. He was." |
âI canât forgive them for what they did to me, but I think they will keep doing it in future. I feel sorry for these guys. Their lives are completely shattered. Theyâve no freedom of movement; no family life. They canât stay at home because theyâre wanted by the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority.â
| "Thre's no way they can control their violent instincts." |
She described how the kidnappers, with whom she had long ideological discussions, pounced after tailing the family for an hour after they left a Gaza refugee camp on Wednesday. âIt was very surreal,â she said. âItâs like youâre in a dream and you canât quite believe this is going on. I felt embarrassed because I knew the risks and still took the chance. Perhaps itâs a feeling of shame, too. And guilt. Lots of things.
| I always hate it when I prove I'm a dumbass, too. |
âFrom the start they were saying, âPlease donât be frightened. Tell your parents not to worry.â They kept saying weâd be freed in a few hours. But after a while we didnât believe the guy because he said so many things.â The kidnappers soon tired of holding the family and simply wanted to be rid of them.
| I guess "The Ransom of Red Chief" hasn't been translated into Arabic, huh? |
Nonetheless, the hostage drama also generated moments of farce. After two days Mrs Burton demanded to wash her underwear and passed the wet garments to one of the gunmen to hang up to dry. âMy mother went to wash her knickers and then brought them back to one of the guys just to embarrass him a little bit,â she said. âShe asked him to hang them up on the line. He blushed a bit and put them up.â
| Touched a woman's bloomers, did they? And an infidel's, to boot. They'll have to be killed, y'know... |
Ms Burton expressed her own guilt at having taken her parents to Gaza, despite Foreign Office travel advice not to make such a visit. âI feel really, really guilty,â she said.
| That's probably because you are, dumbass. |
âI feel irresponsible. Iâm the one who lives there and should have known better. I wanted them to see it was safe and feel a bit calmer about where I lived. But Iâve given them their worst Christmas and their worst holiday ever."
| Gave 'em a pretty good taste of the calm and safety level of your neck of the woods, too... |
âThey were curious and theyâd been aware of the risks. Thatâs why weâd kept it to a day at the end. But the last thing they said was, âWeâre never coming backâ.â
| See? They're not crazy in the least. |
However, Ms Burton, who also speaks Hebrew and worked on a kibbutz, plans to stay in the region and hopes to go on working for the Palestinian people. But she does not plan to return to Gaza.
| "I'll see if I can manage to get kidnapped on the West Bank next..." |
âIâm concerned about my own personal security,â she said. âI donât know if my life would be at risk. I want to stay working with the Palestinian people. I think I couldnât be anywhere else. Iâd feel guilty if I turned my back on them.â
Posted by: Fred 2006-01-03 |
