Hiker travels 2,000 miles to deliver message

A British MP is to visit Luxembourg on Tuesday, after travelling more than 2,000 miles on foot from Olympia in Greece.

Lord Michael Bates will make the stop-over en route to London in a bid to promote peace by highlighting the London 2012 Olympic truce.

The “sacred” truce is founded on the ancient principles of the first Olympic Games. Tired with constant battles and war participating nations agreed to throw down their weapons during the Games and do battle via sports rather than combat.

2,500 years later and Lord Bates hopes to take the truce one step further by encouraging governments to agree to a period of peace during the 2012 Games.

Since 1993, some 193 UN member states have signed a Resolution on the truce. However, according to Lord Bates, no steps were ever taken to pursue the truce's initiatives for peace and reconciliation, as embodied in the original Games.

“Could London be the place where our political leaders rediscovered the true meaning of the Olympic Truce? Why not?”, the politician suggests on his website, walkfortruce.org, adding: “That is why I am walking from Olympia, birthplace of the Ancient Olympic Games, to London to highlight the opportunity to bring this Resolution into reality at the London games.”

The epic walk to peace has seen the politician walk more than 2,100 miles on a journey which has already taken some nine months.

During his tour the MP hopes to encourage residents to write to their local MP and governments to take the Olympic truce seriously and propose initiatives for peace. At the same time, they can sign the petition for London 2012 Olympic Truce.

“If a pause is possible then we prove that peace is possible. If we can bring this Resolution into reality we will leave a legacy from this generation, which is not measured in medals won or records broken, but in lives healed and hope restored,” he says on the website.

Lord Bates will call off at the British Embassy Residence in the capital at 2pm on Tuesday to discuss his campaign message.