Little Conchita's 26-year protest

For some who visit Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, the major attraction is not really the magnificent building called the White House, but a frail five-foot, 60-year-old camping across the street for the past 26 years.

Concepcion Picciotto, a homeless-looking woman, has been "living" on the sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue, in Lafayyette Park in front of the White House since August 1,1981 to protest the foreign policies of six presidents who have occupied that house since.

Her round the clock anti-nuclear vigil is her "life mission", she tells Gulf News on a sunny Friday. "I will not give up my work until the stupid policies of this man [President George Bush] change," she said.

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Surrounded by colourful posters denouncing Bush as a "terrorist" and "child killer", the Spanish-born Concepcion, or Conchita to her few friends, has become a feature of the US capital's most visited part.

She started her "mission" shortly after her divorce. She came to Washington to seek the help of her Congressman in her child custody case but decided to "stick around" and join the many activists who were sitting-in outside the White House to protest the US nuclear weapons policy. It was the height of the Cold War then.

Where there is a will