Countries appeal for end to racist attacks

CANBERRA - The leaders of Australia and India have appealed for calm amid rising violence, threats of retaliation and reports of vigilante patrols after assaults on Indian students.

The appeals by Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and counterpart Manmohan Singh followed belated confirmation by Victorian police that some of the attacks were "clearly racist", and the development of a 10-point safety action plan by the nation's universities.

Spurred by protests and complaints of more assaults in Australia, tensions have been creating their own momentum.

China has joined India in complaints of violence against its nationals, and education officials are becoming increasingly concerned at the potential damage the developing crisis could cause Australia's A$15.5 billion industry in foreign students.

Tourism, already hit by the global economic crisis, could also be affected.

March quarter figures released yesterday showed that visitors from China and India significantly increased spending and the length of their stays in the first three months of the year.

Perceptions of Australia have been especially hammered in India, where an endless flow of stories about violence against students has sparked protests, the burning of Rudd in effigy, calls for boycotts and a tsunami of phone calls from worried parents.

Singh told his Parliament: "I have been appalled by the senseless violence and crime, some of it racially motivated, against our students in Australia.

I propose to engage the authorities in Australia in a high-level dialogue with a view to taking stock of the situation and to providing adequate security for Indian students."

Singh also called for restraint, warning the Indian media that its saturation coverage could "willy nilly create a situation in which [all expatriate Indians] become targets of racial attacks".

Foreign Minister S. M. Krishna urged Indian students to be calm and patient. "They should be restrained."

Rudd, who has already launched a special task force on the safety of overseas students, said yesterday that everyone needed to draw breath to encourage a greater atmosphere of general calm.

He told Radio 3AW that he supported hardline measures in response to acts of violence against students of any ethnicity, but warned against retaliation or vigilante groups.

"It's unacceptable for any student group to believe they can take the law into their own hands," he said.

Rudd also noted that violence was a regrettable part of urban life, and that in the past decade 20 Australians had either been murdered or assaulted in India.

In Melbourne Victorian Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland, conceding that some attacks had been racist, has launched a new sweep against crime in the worst-hit areas, using helicopters, mounted police, dogs and transit police.

But police have also been breaking up groups of Indian men gathering to provide security for their compatriots at Melbourne train stations.

In Sydney's west, hundreds of Indian students protested on Monday and Tuesday nights in Harris Park, near Parramatta, after another student was attacked by a group of men described as Lebanese.

Harris Park, which has been troubled for years by street violence, was one of the flashpoints of Indian anger when Rajesh Kumar, 25, suffered burns to 30 per cent his body after a petrol bomb was thrown through his window last month.