Australian police atrocities caught on tape

Melbourne As Australian authorities face flak over a series of attacks on Indian students, leading members of the community spoke out against branding the country as racist and said the Government should be given some time to resolve the problem.

At the same time, they expressed their deep concern over the security issues of Indian students.

Insisting that Australia was not a racist country and all attacks were not racist in nature, Sydney-based cardiologist Yadu Singh said "We believe that this is not the correct picture of the unfortunate events."

"Most of the attacks are what we call 'opportunistic attacks' and due to the impression by the criminal elements about our students being the easy target for various reasons," Singh said.

Indian-origin CEO of leading company Primus, Ravi Bhatia, who took part in a peace rally here, said "Australia is a very open and tolerant society. It is a fun-loving country.

"There are many examples of highly successful members in the Indian community. Just like any other society, there are small minority of miscreants and malcontents," he said.

"Voice of Indian students have been heard at the highest level of the country. I would request them to give Government time to address grievances," Bhatia said.

Indian students hold rally in Australia, protest attacks

Shaken by a wave of racial assaults, thousands of Indian students chanting 'Bharat Mata Ki Jai' on Sunday rallied here demanding justice for victims of recent attacks as Australia scrambled to contain the rising anger and frustration within the community.

The 'peace rally' organised by bodies like Federation of Indian Students in Australia (FISA) and National Union of Students kicked off from outside the Royal Melbourne Hospital, where 25-year-old Shravan Kumar is in a critical condition after being stabbed with a screwdriver by a group of teens on Sunday last.

Kumar, who had slipped into coma after being stabbed, was "out of danger", but still critical, said a leading community member who visited him at the hospital. "He (Kumar) has come out of coma and moved his hands," said T J Rao, also a former Consul General of India in Melbourne who too participated in the rally. "Kumar is out of life support, but doctors are still not very sure about his full recovery," he said.

The marchers numbering over 5,000 walked down to the Victorian Parliament House on Spring street, holding placards with slogans like 'We want Justice', 'We are the Economy Builders' and 'End Racist Attacks'. They also chanted 'Bharat

Mata Ki Jai'.

FISA founder Gautam Gupta, who led the rally, said "we believe in 'Gandhigiri'" and peaceful ways to present the demands of the student community. The students had hoped to hand over their demands' list to the lawmakers, but it could not be materialised. Their demands included a multicultural police force for Victoria, which houses 47,000 of the 95,000 Indian student community in Australia. They also demanded that crime statistics be made public and sought racial tolerance and awareness, and advertising campaign to welcome international students, highlighting their contribution to the Australian economy.

Facing flak over the spate of racial assaults, Australia government said it was doing everything it can to prevent further attacks on the community.

"We're doing everything that we can, both with the Indian community in Australia and India itself ... but also working very closely with the relevant state authorities," Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith was quoted as saying.

He assured the community that the Australian authorities are trying to bring the attackers to justice and ensure a safe environment for all international students. Apart from Shravan Kumar, the Indian students attacked recently included Baljinder Singh, who has been discharged from hospital after being stabbed by two attackers, and Rajesh Kumar, who suffered 30 per cent burns after a petrol bomb was hurled at him in his home in Sydney.

In a bid to assuage the feelings of the Indian community here, Australia's first Asia-born Cabinet minister said that racism in this country was confined to "a minority of people" with extreme views. "On the whole I think Australians are tolerant," Malaysia-born Penny Wong, Federal Climate Change Minister, was quoted as saying by AAP. "It is a minority of people in Australia who hold those sort of extreme and intolerant views."

FISA leader Gupta said the massive rally of the students proved that they were not "soft targets" and the situation may get out of hands if the community was attacked again. Gupta expressed confidence that the Australian government would take some action now and punish the perpetrators of the attacks.

Some leading community members, including Australian Telco company Iprimus CEO Ravi Bhatia, also participated in the rally, apart from the state opposition leader Ted Baillieu.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• melbourne
• australia
• indian students
• sydney
• indian community
• fisa
• consul general of india

[PresidentZod]

@Maxsucker Indian Australians are ashamed of the hysterical reporting by the Indian media of supposed "racial attacks".

If a lone Indian student out late is robbed in a working class suburb in Melbourne by Pacific Islander or Lebanese youths, the Indian media makes it sound like gangs of white Australians wearing KKK robes are lynching Indians in the streets.

When an Indian child was murdered in Melbourne the Times of India screeched shrilly - but went all quiet when an Indian man was charged.

[Twinpact]

WHATS THE WORLD COMING TO!!!! SO ITS RACIST FOR COPS TO ARREST AN INDIAN MAN!!! STOP PLAYING THE VICTIM CARD!!!

[fractalheadache]

Atrocity? What word would you use to describe genocide?

[RuhiCenet]

what is the big deal with handcuffs??

[Punjabibahman]

Curry muncher and proud!

[fizzzzaa1]

This is disgraceful reporting. Nobody saw this as a racial issue. The individual himself failed to decease and therefore was forcefully removed (along with others). calls of racism are outlandish.

[MGoose66]

@Verity12ful You sound unhappy? Further, since you can't spell nor be polite, it seems it's you we don't need. Pack your bags!

[robbeas]

I think the video show's how they're treated the exact same. Go look up any other protest broken up by police and see what happens. You live in this country, you obey the rules. Not included in these videos are the orders by police to move. You stay there, you deserve what you get when they remove you, thats the sacrifice you make for protesting for your cause. So no, that won't be with cotton gloves and tempting you with chocolate. If you don't like it, then leave.

[Verity12ful]

If there not happy just leave the fucking country

[ahmeohyou]

This type of reporting does nothing to help any cause...

[ilovelgsbigfoig]

FUCK INDIANS ! you all know you fucking hate yourself for being curry munchers ! hence the reason why you can never get laid, ya dumb fuckwits. stop having arranged marriages with your second cousins and do this world a place and stay in your fucking country. YEAH it would be nice for some of you to die but thats too harsh, just leave our country and fuck off !

[Biggus63]

Yeah right, the massacre in Tienanmen square has nothing on this. Oh, the horror...the horror. Spoilt little Indian boys find they are not treated like princes in Australia. Fancy that eh? It's not their fault that we lack a caste system that by an accident of birth places them above hundreds of millions of others that they regard as untouchable. How can we have been so inconsiderate? I must go and console the poor dears! Now, now, that's better, mummy loves you! What crap!