A Times of London follow-up on Kate Burton’s kidnap and release indicates that the incident bears further scrutiny:
British officials have already spoken briefly to Ms Burton, 24, and her parents after their release but are keen to find out more. However, Ms Burton was extremely reluctant to give any descriptions of her captors.
“Kate had long ideological discussions with the kidnappers which certainly tired her out,” one official said, “but we have been trying to impress on her that it was serious and that she was kidnapped.”….
Yesterday Ms Burton was in the West Bank city of Ramallah; but she said that she intended to continue her aid work with the Palestinians after her parents flew home to Brussels late on Saturday….
“It’s been reported that she badgered her kidnappers and I could believe that. You can just imagine: there’s this outcry over the kidnapping and she’s arguing with them in Arabic about ideology. They probably thought ‘get her out of here’.”
We’ve seen the Stockholm Syndrome at work before, but given what we already know about Burton’s NGO, Al-Mezan, we have to wonder what’s really going on.
