Sri Lankan students set to join Commons hunger strike

DOZENS of Sri Lankan students are ready to join the Parliament Square hunger strike if the original protester is taken to hospital, the Evening Standard has learned.

Paramesweran Subramaniyam has gone without food since last Tuesday and says he plans to die in front of the House of Commons unless the UN acts to stop the Sri Lankan government's offensive against Tamil Tiger rebels.

Protesters say thousands of Tamil civilians in northern Sri Lanka are in danger as the government pursues a policy of ethnic cleansing. A 48-hour ceasefire was due to expire today.

Mr Subramaniyam, 28, whose entire family is thought to have died in the conflict, is on his eighth day of fasting. He has consented to drink water to prolong his hunger strike.

As the London demonstrations threatened to escalate, with around 1,000 gathering last night, Tamil students revealed today that at least 10 and as many as 50 young men were waiting to take Mr Subramaniyam's place.

Student Sivatharsan Sivakumaraval, 20, who suspended his hunger strike after five days on Saturday, warned that more than 50 protesters willing to starve themselves to death would "overrun Parliament Square" unless Gordon Brown agreed to withdraw financial aid to the Sri Lankan government.

Speaking at his home in Mitcham, Mr Sivakumaraval said: "Why is Gordon Brown staying silent? It is impossible to stay silent when you know the genocide that is happening.

"A hundred people are dying every day, even children. Britain has more responsibility for the Tamils than any other country because it gave freedom to our land, but it does nothing. We are not terrorists, we just want peace and freedom in our country.

"It won't just be me prepared to die - loads of people have pledged to join me. Our lives mean nothing to us and time is running out."

Mr Sivakumaraval, who left Sri Lanka in 1995, halted his hunger strike to take part in overseas talks aimed at resolving the crisis.

Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes, who is facilitating the visits, said four groups of two to three British Tamil students, each accompanied by a British MP or MEP, would hold meetings with the UN in New York, the US administration in Washington, the EU council of Ministers in Brussels and the Secretary General of the Commonwealth in London. Plans would be finalised in the next two days, he said. Mass protests began outside Parliament last Saturday when two men jumped off Westminster Bridge in a bid to highlight alleged human rights abuses in Sri Lanka. The UN says more than 2,800 civilians may have been killed and 7,000 injured in the fighting in the last two months, but the Sri Lankan government disputes these figures.

Mr Subramaniyam arrived in Britain four weeks ago having fled violence in the town of Vanni, where thousands are trapped after government forces attempted to crush Tamil Tiger rebels after a 30-year civil war.

Mr Subramaniyam, huddled beneath duvets, said weakly: "We will succeed. If something happens to me others will carry on. I don't care about my body's condition."

Dr Ratna Pushparajah, one of half a dozen doctors providing round-the-clock care, fears he could slip into a coma within a week.