Transcript

MARK COLVIN: A senior member of Sydney's Indian community says Indian students are planning to retaliate against violent crimes. The students argue that they're being regularly assaulted because they're seen as soft targets.

Matters came to a head in Western Sydney yesterday evening when around 300 students protested late into the night after an alleged assault.

The students are calling for greater police protection but the evidence of assault is mainly anecdotal.

As David Mark reports, official statistics show no increase in the number of reported assaults in the area. And a warning, this report does contain strong language.

DAVID MARK: A student is allegedly bashed. False rumours circulate - another student has been kidnapped. Text messages are sent. The word gets out.

YADU SINGH: And then there was a big crowd of more than 200 students collecting in that intersection. And of course the police came, a bigger number of police came and all those things.

DAVID MARK: The Sydney Cardiologist, Dr Yadu Singh was having dinner in Harris Park in Sydney's west last night when the spontaneous protest happened.

YADU SINGH: And then there was a big standoff between the student group and also the police and they were there right up to three o'clock or four o'clock. And we were there because we were trying to persuade that look, this is not the way to go.

DAVID MARK: Dr Singh coordinates a committee on Indian students' issues set up by the Indian Consul General. He may be a community leader but his attempts to soothe the angry students fell on deaf ears. They say they're being regularly assaulted and robbed.

YADU SINGH: They say that we have been copping it for quite a while. They were showing injuries to us. "This is what happened to me yesterday." They were telling us, "This is what happened to me two days ago." "This is what happened to me five days ago. And a lot of people were showing their injuries and they were (inaudible). I said we want to stop this concept of we the soft target.

DAVID MARK: One of the students at the protest, Ajay Kumar spoke to "AM".

AJAY KUMAR: I never come back at home at night time. Before finish my work, I stay there. Why? Because I know if I come back, someone smash me, someone take all my money. I know because I'm not safe here, because Australian police is shit, fully shit.

DAVID MARK: The allegation police haven't protected the Indian community is rejected by the New South Wales deputy police commissioner Dave Owens.

DAVID OWENS: We're doing a lot. First of all can I say that any assaults upon any members of a community won't be tolerated.

DAVID MARK: Nevertheless the perception that Indian students are being targeted is clearly felt in the community. The question is why?

Dr Yadu Singh argues the attacks aren't racially motivated and says most students agree with him. Rather the students - who often work late at night or leave their universities well after dark - believe they're a soft target.

YADU SINGH: I would discourage the impression that this is a completely race-based situation. I think there is an element but they consider, the criminals I'm talking about, that Indian students have money or mobile phone or laptop or something and if we rob them, bash them up, nothing will happen. But some people clearly feel that race is an issue.

DAVID MARK: It's a claim that can't be measured.

The Director of the New South Wales Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Don Weatherburn, doesn't collect information on ethnicity of attackers or victims in assault crimes. He says there's been no increase in these crimes in the Harris Park area.

DON WEATHERBURN: Well there are two local government areas covered by that. One is Holroyd and the other is Parramatta and neither is at the moment recording any increase in the number of non-domestic assaults over the last two years.

DAVID MARK: The problem is that in this case, statistics don't tell the full story.

DON WEATHERBURN: Well it's fair to say in the case of assault that a large number of assaults don't get reported to police. Somewhere around 70 per cent don't get reported to the police.

DAVID MARK: So if there is a problem it's simply because people are staying quiet.

DON WEATHERBURN: That's right. If there's a problem, people are obviously not telling the police because it's certainly not showing up in the figures.

DAVID MARK: And that's exactly what is happening according to Dr Yadu Singh.

YADU SINGH: I think even the police guys are aware that there is under-reporting of the crime.

DAVID MARK: Why?

YADU SINGH: The reason for that is very simple. Most students have come here to improve their situation, to study here and then apply for permanent residency in this country, and they don't want to have this situation where there might be a police record.

And they all need something called police clearance certificate when they apply for immigration to this country. And they don't want to compromise their situation and as a result they will put up with the business of humiliation and then the beating and the robbing rather than going to police.

DAVID MARK: Police are calling on Indian students to report assaults, but Dr Yadu Singh fears that the students will take the law into their own hands.

YADU SINGH: So they are now sort of coming around and hey, we want to change this perception that we are the soft target. No, we will retaliate, and this is the worst thing to happen.

DAVID MARK: This is what they're saying, that they want to hit back?

YADU SINGH: They want to hit back because the soft target and suffering in silence is not the way to go.

DAVID MARK: How do they intend to hit back?

YADU SINGH: What they're saying is that if somebody comes to us, beats us up, robs us, we're going to retaliate and bash them back.

MARK COLVIN: The Sydney cardiologist and coordinator of the Indian Consul General's committee on Indian students' issues, Dr Yadu Singh. David Mark was the reporter.