Indian students attacked outside pub

ArticleData Array ( [Article] => Array ( [article_id] => 1052467 [headline] => Indian students attacked outside pub [abstract] => Two Indian students have been injured in a fight outside a hotel in Wollongong on the NSW south coast. [keywords] => indian students, student, attacked, pub [content] =>

Two Indian students have been injured in a fight outside a hotel in Wollongong on the NSW south coast.

Police Inspector Brian Wyyer said two men suffered minor injuries in the melee outside the Illawarra Hotel on Keira Street early in the morning.

Local police reveal they received a call about the attack at approximately 12:30 AEDT, but found nothing when they arrived at the scene.

"When the police arrived they couldn't locate anyone there," Inspector Wyver told Fairfax radio.

"They later on found that two people had been taken to Wollongong Hospital by a friend.

"They attended the hospital and there appears there has been some sort of fight outside the hotel.

"They didn't want any action in relation to that fight, they weren't badly injured so police have taken a report."

Police say the victims don't want to press charges.

RAAF site hacked

The news comes after it was revealed an Indian hacker broke into the royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) website and defaced it with threatening messages.

The hacker, identifying himself as Atul Dwivedi, warned the Australian government to halt racist attacks against Indian students.

He said that unless the government complies, he'll pawn all their cyber properties.

A defence spokesman's confirmed the hack took place earlier in the week, forcing it to take the entire RAAF website offline for eight hours.

Earlier this year, a barrage of attacks on Indian students in both Sydney and Melbourne led to national and international headlines over the safety and wellbeing of foreign students studying in Australia.

The New South Wales and Federal Governments have both committed to developing a strategy to better protect foreign students.
 

[start_date] => 17 July 2009 | 09:10:46 AM [comments_allowed] => 0 [source] => SBS staff and agencies [commentCount] => 0 [video] => [image] => Array ( [caption] => Two Indian students have been injured in a fight outside a hotel in Wollongong, the NSW south coast. (Google Maps Street view) [useRegularImage] => 1 [media_library_id] => 106512 [site_id] => 1 [media_library_group_id] => 0 [media_usage_id] => 0 [filename] => site_1_rand_1122260828_illawarrapub_1807_l_googlemaps.jpg [title] => illawarrapub_1807_L_googlemaps_1122260828 [description] => file:site_1_rand_1122260828_illawarrapub_1807_l_googlemaps.jpg [type] => [height] => 270 [width] => 400 [source] => [video_hi] => [video_lo] => [section] => [display_order] => 0 [create_date] => 2009-07-17 09:17:17 [active] => 1 [media_usage] => Article Large [usageWidth] => 300 [usageHeight] => 225 ) [imagePath] => http://media.sbs.com.au/news/upload_media/ [audio] => [reporter] => [relatedLinks] => Array ( [2] => Array ( [id] => 1043371 [label] => Students' deaths in the spotlight [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) [1] => Array ( [id] => 1029437 [label] => Film on student attacks in pipeline [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) [0] => Array ( [id] => 1023156 [label] => Indian students in Sydney reluctant to report abuse [display_order] => 0 [type] => Article ) ) [relatedArticles] => Array ( [0] => Array ( [article_id] => 1023156 [headline] => Indian students in Sydney reluctant to report abuse [abstract] => Members of a committee linked to the Indian consulate fear students in Sydney are reluctant to report abuse to the police.
[content] =>

A pattern of abuse against Indian students in Sydney may be a greater problem than the NSW government is aware of because students are reluctant to report incidents to police.

Premier Nathan Rees met members of the Indian community to address concerns that Indian students in NSW could be subject to the same kind of abuse experienced by Indian students in Victoria.

In one apparently racially motivated attack on four Indian students in Melbourne, a man was left fighting for his life in hospital.

Premier Nathan Rees told reporters in Sydney he would liaise regularly with Indian community leaders to protect the safety and welfare of the city's Indian students.

He did not believe there was a problem to date.

"Very occasionally (there are) minor incidents. (There is) certainly no pattern and nothing racially based," he said.

NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione told reporters there was no intelligence suggesting Indian students were being targeted in particular, despite an Indian hospitality graduate receiving burns to 30 per cent of his body when a petrol bomb was thrown through the window of his Harris Park home in Sydney's west last month.

"It was a horrific attack," he said of that incident.

"It highlights the importance of making sure the community understand that we want to hear, that every event, no matter how small it is, we want to be told, so we can take some action," said Scipione.

"We can't act if we don't know."

Dr Yadu Singh, from the Indian Consulate in Sydney, heads a committee to address concerns about the welfare of Indian students in Australia.

Dr Singh said he knew of a number of Indian students who had been robbed in Sydney because they were perceived as "soft targets".

"We have to have undercover policing to catch hold of these criminals who are exploiting the naivety and niceness of these students who have come from India," he said.

His colleague Vish Viswanathan said Indian students did not usually go to police.

"The Indians generally are not in the habit of going to the police because they are frightened to go to the police in India,” Viswanathan said.

"So when they come here they feel that if they go to the police something wrong will happen to them and they are afraid of that,” he said.

"They are also not aware of their rights. They feel reporting to police will affect their immigration status and a few other long-term plannings, so that is why the students have to be educated."

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 5 June 2009 [articletime] => 5 June 2009 [display_order] => 0 ) [1] => Array ( [article_id] => 1029437 [headline] => Film on student attacks in pipeline [abstract] => A Bollywood director says he wants to make a film based on alleged racist attacks on Indian students in Australia, despite an unofficial boycott of the country by his movie colleagues.
[content] =>

A Bollywood director says he wants to make a film based on alleged racist attacks on Indian students in Australia, despite an unofficial boycott of the country by his movie colleagues.

"I have a script in my mind and hopefully by the end of the year we will go and shoot the film in Australia," said film maker Mohit Suri.

"The film is inspired by a friend's personal experience who has seen all these things. I want to show people what instigates all these attacks."

Strained ties

Activists say there have been about 70 racially-motivated attacks on Indian students in the southern city of Melbourne this year, leading to protests, increased community tensions and strained diplomatic ties.

There are some 95,000 Indians studying in Australia after a university publicity blitz targeting the huge Asian country's growing middle class.

Australia has also been the location for several popular Bollywood films in recent years, including Heyy Babyy, Janasheen, Dil Chahta Hai and Salaam Namaste.

Two Bollywood movies -- including one by Bollywood's largest producer, Yash Raj Films -- were to be shot in Australia this month.

But a number of Bollywood actors and directors have accused the Australian government of not doing enough to prevent the attacks.

Bachchan rejects degree

Megastar Amitabh Bachchan rejected an honorary degree from Brisbane University, telling the authorities that it would be "inappropriate at this juncture to accept this decoration".

Fellow star Aamir Khan has also expressed his concern.

Other industry figures said they would refuse to shoot in Australia, including Heyy Babyy director Sajid Khan, while the largest Bollywood union has called on its members to cancel shoots planned in Australia in protest.

But Mohit said: "I only feel boycotting a country is no solution. Moreover my film is based on the subject of Indians being attacked in Australia so obviously my film has to be shot in Australia."

The film is in the scripting stage and has not been cast, he said.

 

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 16 June 2009 [articletime] => 16 June 2009 [display_order] => 0 ) [2] => Array ( [article_id] => 1043371 [headline] => Students' deaths in the spotlight [abstract] => This week the Indian Supreme Court directed its government to investigate the deaths of Indian students in Australia.
[content] =>

This week the Indian Supreme Court directed its government to investigate the deaths of Indian students in Australia.

The ongoing negative publicity in India about the safety of overseas students has the Australian government concerned.

A cross party Australian parliamentary delegation is in the Indian capital trying to allay potential damage to Australia's multi million dollar export market.

"We don't want the only view of Australia to be some terrible and tragic incidents that we've condemned. We are very generally a safe society," Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said.

"We welcome not just Indian students, but all students from other countries".

Student bodies are concerned that government figures show more than 50 overseas students died in Australia over a recent 12 month period....34 of them from "unknown causes".

No details of the deaths have been released.

A Victorian Coroner's spokesperson says it's not supressing the information, but says that the details are not exhaustive enough to be accurate.

"The damage has been done, so the government is going to get no brownie points for being seen to be suppressing facts," David Barrow, from the National Union of Students said.

"This government can change the way in which we treat international students and I think overseas governments and parents will recognise that...but they have to spend their way out of it, not spin their way out of it," he added. 

The Indian Students Federations says that for years it's been calling for more disclosure over student deaths.

"We would strongly request the government to take a human approach to this matter, " the Federations' Gautam Gupta said. 

"Understand that families are involved here.

"Put a closure to these things. If someone has died, the family needs to know why they have died and they need to understand that the whole community is doing whatever we can to protect and prevent such things happening in the future".

Australia's Senate Inquiry into the treatment and welfare of international students is underway and due to report back in November.

[content_type_id] => 3 [site_name] => World News Australia [articledate] => 1 July 2009 [articletime] => 1 July 2009 [display_order] => 0 ) ) [comments] => Array ( ) ) [winston] => test )