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Peace camp to be set up opposite Parliament

-07/03/05

Anti-war campaigners are to follow the lead of a Christian activist and set up a peace camp opposite the Houses of Parliament.

The camp will be made in the run up to a huge demonstration to protest at the UKís continued involvement in the Iraq conflict.

Christian peace activist Brian Haw has staged a three-and-a-half-year, 24-hour-a-day vigil against war (and especially the invasion of Iraq) by camping out in Parliament square.

Seen by parliamentarians as an eccentric whose protest is unsightly, he won a High court victory against plans to evict him from the square.

He did so under the Human Rights Act, a precedent which human rights groups says establishes a right to protest that the government is now seeking to revoke.

Mr Haw is an evangelical Christian, but his one-person campaign against war has until now failed to attract much support or sympathy from Christian groups, allegedly because of his ëmaverickí tactics.

But now activists are to follow his lead and camp out from March 13 until the march and rally in central London on March 19 which is expected to attract tens of thousands of people from across the UK.

A spokesman for the Stop The War Coalition, which is organising the event, said: ìThe aim of the peace camp is to take our message to the heart of the Government. Two years after the war began hundreds of people are still dying in Iraq.î

The march will be led by anti war activists and members from Military Families Against the War.

Dave Randalls from Faithless will be performing at the rally in Trafalgar Square and there will be speeches from politicians and leaders of Stop the War and CND.

The protest is being held to mark the second anniversary of the invasion of Iraq.