return to articles

http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/story.jsp?story=591738

Power of one

From the dogged anti-war maverick to the bird lover who wanted to see the great bustard return to our shores, Peter Stanford meets the lone crusaders who tried to make a difference in 2004

12 December 2004

Brian Haw : 'Stop killing innocent children'

In the three-and-a-half years since he set up his stall opposite the Palace of Westminster, Brian Haw has only left his peace vigil three times. Each time was to go to hospital after he had been beaten up. On the last occasion, his nose was broken. His assailant had an American accent and Haw believes that he was a marine.

"I'd like to go back to Birmingham to see my seven children," says 55-year-old Haw, a devout Christian. "But how could I look them in the face unless I knew that I'd done all I could to save the children of Iraq and other countries who are dying because of my government's unjust policies."

He arrived on 2 June 2001, and put up a small display of placards protesting the deaths of children because of sanctions against Iraq. It is believed that his vigil, now close to 1,300 days, is the longest one-man protest in British history. And it is clearly getting to his targets. Last month, the Home Office added an amendment to a bill to tackle serious crime to ban such continuous vigils from Parliament Square.

He sleeps under tarpaulin each night. "The hunting ladies are allowed a tent when they come, but the police told me I might have a missile launcher inside mine. Whenever I start feeling sorry for myself, I think about the children in the mountains of Afghanistan who are sheltering in caves because of our policies. I don't know what it is going to take to stop this madness. All I know is that this is what I feel I can and must do."