Students protesting in Harris Park
By Ashok Kumar
Sydney: In a positive step towards ensuring peace in the volatile Harris Park, the Mayor of Parramatta Mr. Tony Issac tonight called a meeting of the community leaders, student groups and businessmen and attended by Consul General of India Mr. Amit Dasgupta and Consul Mr. Gautam Roy, Police Superintendent Robert Redfern and officers of the local command where it was resolved to increase the police presence near the station area and main thoroughfares, increased visibility by installing more lights and more importantly installation of CCTV cameras.
Superintendent Redfern and Mr. Dasgupta allayed the fears of the students that their visa will be cancelled if they complain to police about the incidents. They assured that their visa status will not be affected.
Another meeting of the community leaders led by Dr. Yadu Singh discussed the various means to resolve the tension in Harris Park. The meeting suggested more police patrols to give the residents on assurance of protection.
A late night visit to the Harris Park area revealed heavy presence of police with at least three police cars making rounds of the main thoroughfares every few minutes. However, groups of young men could be seen in different corners to face any eventuality.
Meanwhile, last night, even as the Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Mr. S.M. Krishna as well his Australian counter-part Mr. Stephen Smith called upon the Indian students to remain calm, the allegedly “kidnapped” boy appeared after escaping from Fairfield area about 15 kilometers away from Harris Park.
He approached the police who initially refused to take his statement triggering another protest by the Indian students. However, police agreed to listen to the boy and took him to the police station. On Monday night , the police present at Harris Park while the sit in was still on, denied the abduction claims by the students, even as a large number of them told this correspondent that at least one boy has been kidnapped.
The man who had appeared had been taken by four men to Fairfield before he escaped butg could not specify the background of his abductors since they were wearing balaclavas. The crowd chanted slogans calling police racist, but when the man was taken to Parramatta police station to make a statement the tension eased and the crowd dropped to about 100. However, police could not confirm his story last night.
Late in the evening, a group broke away and clashed with a group of Lebanese men who then fled in a white car that hit at least one of the protesters in its path.
After the violence escalated, waves of Indian men raced up the street followed by police cars. Two men were arrested about 9pm as police tried to move the crowd on. One of the men was charged with carrying a pole that could have been used as a weapon, police said.
While the Harris Park is inhabited mainly by the Indian community, a greater number of Lebanese are living in the adjoining Granville and Auburn areas. Even Harris Park was once dominated by Middle Eastern community who terrorised the white Australian elderly women.
Plans were made among the mob to travel to Granville to confront Lebanese youths, but they could not rally enough support. Later, members of the mob said they could not go home as they feared carloads of men were waiting to meet them beyond the police cordon. “Someone could die tonight,” one said.
The crowd dispersed about midnight, a police spokeswoman said.
Earlier on Monday night, hundreds of young Indian men, mainly students gathered to protest outside shops in Harris Park following an assault on a young Indian man just before 9 pm. The man, aged in his early 20s, was allegedly attacked by a group of Middle Eastern men near the intersection of Marion and Wigram Sts. His injuries were minor and he has so far declined to make a formal complaint.
The gathered people said today one person has been assaulted tomorrow there will be more. The problem is unending and we want this to stop. We want police presence all the time in the area.
The trouble began after the Middle Eastern men pelted eggs on passing by Indian men and women. Then they threw beer bottles at the Indian men and also attacked them with baseball bats.
Soon after that incident, three Middle Eastern men were allegedly assaulted by members of the Indian group as protesters flooded onto the streets. It was alleged that the fleeing Middle Eastern men abducted an Indian youth but the police denied it. However, a local resident Bob Davis said I heard a boy being kidnapped. The Middle Eastern trio suffered cuts and bruises and were treated by ambulance officers at the scene.
No charges have yet been laid in relation to either assault but police have not finished investigating the incident.
Police from Holroyd, Parramatta and Rosehill Local Area Commands formed a line with the dog squad to keep the crowd from progressing into residential areas.
The protesters crammed onto a roundabout and chanted “Bharat Mata ki Jai’, “We want justice and “We shall overcome.” The community leaders present there tried to placate the agitating youth who had refused to disperse till boys were released. The community leaders negotiated the issue with the police who agreed to take them along to the police station to bring back the boys.
By 01.00 hrs, the number of protestors had dwindled to about 50.
A cookery student of Holmes College, Jimit Shah arrived at the intersection shortly before the first assault. “I was very, very scared,” the 26-year-old said. “There is not just one problem in the area, it is like Melbourne where the students have no rights.
“Violent things are happening to our brothers (fellow Indians) and nothing is being done.”
Many protesters stressed the need for a greater police presence in the Harris Park area at night as tension escalates between the Indian and Lebanese communities.
About 70 demonstrators went to Parramatta Police Station about 2am to continue their protests about the treatment of the Indian community, but were quickly moved on.
Related posts:
- NSW forms Working Group to address to violence against Indian Students By Ashok Kumar Even as New South W ales Premier...
- Police mount vicious attack on peaceful Indian students “At about five am on Monday morning, around a hundred...
- Indian student suffers 30% burns in petrol bomb attack In yet another case of violence towards the Indian...
- Gunmen storm Lahore Police Academy; siege ends after 31 killed in firing LAHORE: Terror struck Lahore for the second time in a...
- PM appeals for peace as 2 killed in Punjab violence The Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh, has expressed deep concern...
Related posts brought to you by Yet Another Related Posts Plugin.
June 9th, 2009 at 12:09 pm
Police in Aus is useless. They have not done any thing as i know in last five years. I believe its time to hit back otherwise it will happen again and again to us.And boycott all labenese products, don’t even go to labenese hair dresser.
June 9th, 2009 at 8:07 pm
If Police in Aus are useless, what are they like in India?
June 9th, 2009 at 8:09 pm
I don’t see what the problem is? If you don’t feel safe Mapreet, why stay in the country? No one’s forcing you to be here.
June 10th, 2009 at 12:08 am
Dont blame the aussie police..
the lebanese are the real problem
June 10th, 2009 at 12:53 am
Stop your lousy commenting Dave. I think Indians should leave such a non tolerant country with inefficient police. Indian Students are paying arm and leg in tuition fees to support your schools and they alteast deserve some protection for that kind of money they pay to the Australian Education System.
June 10th, 2009 at 4:31 am
i know this day will come beacause we punjabis cannot live like chinese we will teach you lesson by going inside your house. it means we will hit you inside ur house if you hit indian on roads. once we got all rights in australia, we will teach a good lesson to all of you racists but if it needs then we can teach lesson now as well. so stop now or face action from indians
June 10th, 2009 at 9:56 am
Ajay, you are right. but do you think that this problem will be solved by rally and slogans, by bitting innocent people on the streets? then what is the difference between we and them? I think it will increase. They will be moreangry on us.
We should not take the law in our hands. Let them work on it. We needed to attrack their attention on these incidents. This has happned to me and my husband. but still I will say we have to be calm and careful.
June 10th, 2009 at 2:10 pm
Lebanese are the problem. They caused the Cronula riots by bashing life guards. They cannot live like normal people, they are the ethnic group with most unemployment, they are over represented in crime statistics. They are a drain on Australia. Can anyone show me any instance where
Lebanese have made a contribution to Australian life??
June 10th, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Jaan ni dene suke v badla lena hai… chak lo…
this should be stopped sooner ….. the govt. should do something regards to the centrelink, cos these people don’t work and after getting residency just get money from centrelink and spend their time in doing crime… if they have to work and to earn their daily needs they will not find time for it… the police has less power,, even the police has to face abusive comments… but we should all stand against it and if any incident happens or we find any suspect we should inform the police….
June 10th, 2009 at 7:54 pm
john dexter:
most lebanese are hard working people. just go to your local building site, and see how many lebanese tradesmen there are.
lebanese, croatians and macedonians, and other southeast europeans and middle easterners are the backbone of the building industry in sydney.
also lots of successful businessmen in sydney are of lebanese descent. one of the biggest building developer companies in sydney, called dyldam are owned by a lebanese family.
so keep your racist biggoted views to yourself.
June 10th, 2009 at 11:20 pm
Hello everybody,
As everybody knows big fish eats small fish. Strong animal tries 2 dominate weak animal. This is da law of nature.
What makes human being different frm other animals is our way of thinking. We wanna start gud frenship with strange people. We never dominate other people coz they r weaker than us.
For example, if middle east people doesn’t think this way then they are physically human being and mentally animal.
June 11th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Lorenzo – read the paper mate. The Lebs have been acting like agressive monkees in packs for years -bashings rapes party crashing – everyone in sydney knows this. Yeah sure some have building jobs but a big chunk are worthless morons. The whole Harris Park thing is Lebs targeting Indians. Then we have some ignorant fools on this site who probably don’t live in Sydney and blame white aussies when the white aussies aren’t even doing this.
June 11th, 2009 at 6:25 pm
You indian monkeys are lucky you are even in this country. carrying on this is proving the point that you cannot integrate in a civil society. you dont belong here, your not welcome, fuck off.
white power.
June 11th, 2009 at 9:29 pm
This is something unusual thing happens in sydney before australia was the safest country in the world not all middle eastern community is same but there are some peoples who dont like peace and try to show them powers , ithink its not an good idea to hit back. we should all have to be togather and try our level best to keep peace and inform police i m sure govt should take some steps regarding this as this can be happen with anybody dosnt matter thats indian,labnease,chinease or aussie..
govt should have to take safety steps
June 12th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Note that the local police commander covering Harris Park, Superintendent Robert Redfern, is the same idiot whose passion for not doing his job (or the part of it that involves arresting lebanese thugs) lead to the Cronulla riots when he was the local commader there.
June 13th, 2009 at 8:13 pm
unfortunately the only way to fight fire is fire itself
August 21st, 2009 at 10:01 pm
the problem is the lebs. they r all not the same but they are not being fair by attacking another migrant community who are hardworking and want to help develop australia and themselves. lebanese also were once in the same situation as indians. if the australians were harassing the indians then that would be understandable, as some australians dont like to see indians living here. but this time it is not the aussies, who hav become more open-minded but it is a minority community called the lebs. We punjabis are warriors from the heart, read our history, we defeated the greeks, arabs (lebs), persians, afghans, mongols. we got independence from the british (a superpower). we work hard, but fight harder.
September 16th, 2009 at 7:02 pm
the problem here is people identifying eachother by race and culture alone. We will always see difference and antagonism through this way of seeing. Yes we are all different. Thats a good thing, I think, and we are often in competition for limited resources…jobs, space (tcronulla beach for e.g.) please remember this though. Humans have been moving around the globe for thousands of years, exchanging ideas and DNA too and often coming into conflict with eachother. A famous poet, Pablo Neruda, wrote “I know no country/ I know only the skin of the earth. We all are born onto this skin…it is the skin we share. Yes we will fight eachother, but we must be intelligent about it…we must learn to argue with ideas , listen and learn from our different experiences. Indians, Lebanese, Chinese a nd Europeans all have come to this place in very recent times. No group has ownership. Look for the real reasons and causes of life’s difficulties and you will see that they are to be found in the historical injustices and disspossessions common to all “peoples” of the world….those in possession make the rules hard to follow for newcomers everywhere. Talk to eachother and show respect. Cooperate to overcome the true problems of your shared society. Respect your differences and acknowledge your competing interests. Fight a little…thats normal…but fight fair and with respect for eachother….OK?
September 19th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
Unfortunately the Australian immigration policy in the 1970’s to 1990’s is to blame. Lots of poor, uneducated and traumatised Lebanese were approved to migrate after Lebanese Civil War. No study was done of their ability to assimilate into a Western democratic country which is predominantly anglo-saxon. The current state of lawlessness and crime in many parts of Sydney where these people have settled is a result. Its too late to do anything now. The Lebanese now have a ‘persecuted’ mentality & believe everyone is against them.
October 6th, 2009 at 9:29 am
Jaan ni dene suke v badla lena hai… chak lo…
this should be stopped sooner ….. the govt. should do something regards to the centrelink, cos these people don’t work and after getting residency just get money from centrelink and spend their time in doing crime… if they have to work and to earn their daily needs they will not find time for it… the police has less power,, even the police has to face abusive comments… but we should all stand against it and if any incident happens or we find any suspect we should inform the police….
December 14th, 2009 at 4:17 pm
peace brother peace, untill v get all d rights as australian citizen if v r convicted 4 a petty crime v have 2 go back n jus think of money dat would b wasted, once v get all d rights ha ha ha i feel pity on lebanese or whoever
January 15th, 2010 at 10:35 am
At Harris Park, the attacks were Leb attacks. The Lebs operated true to form. There were no surprises. They are a disgusting, cowardly bunch and deserve all the ridicule they get. In Australia, in Sydney the racists are usually Lebanese, particularly Muslim. They come from an inferior country and culture and struggle to measure up. They want to make themselves superior, but end up degrading the reputation of the Lebanese and Muslim communities in Australia and, as here, the reputation of Australia and Australians. They will get their comeupance like at Cronulla in December 2005, but as time passes the problem gets bigger so the response will get bigger. The convenors of government do not know how to handle the problem they created under the rubric “multiculturalism”.