A DEDICATED doctor is caring for two students on hunger strike outside the Houses of Parliament.

Dr Jayendran Namasivayah, of Monkhams Lane, Woodford Green, as been looking after two Tamil men who are starving themselves in protest at alleged genocide in Sri Lanka.

The Whipps Cross consultant radiologist has been tending to Siviatharsun Sivakumarave, 21, and Subramaniyam Paramestvaran, 28, day and night as they fast in Westminster.

The pair are acting as part of a larger demonstration aiming to force the British government to pressurise Sri Lanka into a permanent ceasefire with Tamil separatists.

They signed documents promising “hunger strike until we breathe our last breath”, and told the authorities they did not want to receive medical treatment if they lost consciousness.

Dr Jayendran Namasivayah said: “When they started they didn’t have any medical support and then my daughter received a call from one of the organisers and so I offered to help.

“I have been there since every day and night to check up on them. All I can do is monitor their blood pressure and pulse.

“After 48 hours without water there was real danger of going into kidney failure so we persuaded them to take a few sips of water to keep his protest going longer. One will still will not take any sugar or IV drip though.”

Mr Sivakumarave has now suspended his strike after being persuaded by Liberal Democrat MP Simon Hughes to join a delegation heading to the United Nations in New York.

Mr Paramestvaran started drinking water on Saturday but continues to refuse food.

The protestors accuse the Sri Lankan army of killing civilians in its ongoing clash with the rebel Tamil Tigers, a claim the army denies.

They demand a permanent ceasefire by Government troops who they claim kill 70 innocent Tamil civilians per day, plus access to be granted to Red Cross workers and the international press.

Since 1983 there has been on-and-off civil war with many atrocities reported on both sides.

Dr Namasivayah’s wife, Manchula, has also been providing moral support for the pair. The family set up an orphanage in the north of Sri Lanka to house 50 children made homeless after the 2004 Asian tsunami.

The mum-of-three said: “We are there for humanitarian reasons and if they are determined to starve themselves then we cannot stand by and do nothing.

“The boy who has suspended his strike had is mother with him but the other one has no one after his nine siblings were all killed so I am there as a motherly figure and talk on his behalf to members of parliament.

“There are 300,000 British Tamils living in this country and they will not vote at the next general election unless something is done.”