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IMMEDIATE PRESS RELEASE
Friday 9 December 2005
FROM: Parliament Square Peace Campaign [A]

CINDY SHEEHAN TO VISIT UK PEACE PROTESTOR BRIAN HAW
The first meeting of two of the most iconic figures of the US and UK anti-war movements

SUNDAY 11 DECEMBER, 12 NOON, PARLIAMENT SQUARE: Cindy Sheehan, a mother whose soldier son was killed in Iraq and who is now campaigning for the removal of US troops from the country, will be visiting long-standing peace campaigner Brian Haw at his vigil opposite the Houses of Parliament.

Cindy Sheehan is currently visiting the UK to participate in anti-war activities. She came to sudden public prominence in August this year when she began a vigil for peace outside George Bush’s ranch in Crawford, Texas, demanding that Mr Bush meet with her as the mother of a US soldier killed in action. She was joined by many supporters and the vigil was named Camp Casey after her son.

Ms Sheehan is credited with helping to revitalise the anti-war movement in the US and is also one of the co-founders of Gold Star Families for Peace, which campaigns to bring US troops home from Iraq, to minimise the ‘human cost’ of the war and to end the occupation [B].

Brian Haw has been holding a continuous 24 hour vigil against the UK government’s foreign policy in Iraq since June 2001. He started his protest against the economic sanctions on Iraq and has been one of this government’s most vocal and public critics of the invasion and occupation. His extensive display informs passers-by of the ongoing horrors and injustices of the current conflict. He has been shortlisted for the 2005 Human Rights Award [C].

Much of Mr Haw’s concern is for the younger generation: the children and young people of Iraq but also the soldiers sent to fight. He has had many visits from people who have themselves seen active service, many deeply affected by what they have participated in and witnessed. Mr Haw is a father of seven children and is now a grandfather.

In August, Mr Haw wrote a letter of support to Cindy Sheehan: ‘For your child, precious as mine, regardless of the colour of skin, the country you live in, race or religion, that is why I’m here, why I cannot leave…..By your courageous stance you affirm the value of your child, and every other casualty. Your actions are the only way of minimizing the awful losses of this illegal, evil war.’

Accompanying Cindy Sheehan will be other anti-war activists from the US including: Code Pink: Women for Peace Co-founders Medea Benjamin and Gael Murphy; Ann Wright, the high-ranking State Department official who resigned in 2003 in protest against the invasion of Iraq; and Phyllis Bennis of the Institute for Policy Studies, a leading analyst and writer on the Iraq war.

NOTES:
[A] See www.parliament-square.org.uk for more on Brian Haw’s continuous vigil.
[B] Casey Sheehan was killed in action in Baghdad on 4 April 2004 aged 24. See www.gsfp.org for more information on Gold Star Families for Peace.
[C] The partner organisations for the Human Rights Award are Liberty, Justice and the Law Society and it is sponsored by the Bar Council. See www.liberty-human-rights.org.uk/events/human-rights-awards/index.shtml