Crackdown `won`t solve racial problems`

Victoria is deploying dogs, horses and even helicopters in a highly visible
crackdown on thugs preying on Indian students.
Police have announced a blitz focusing on problem train stations in Melbourne's
suburbs as they try to reassure the Indian community the streets are safe.
Mounted police, the dog squad, the air wing, transit and traffic police and covert
officers will join the effort.
But the state's police chief admits the crackdown will change only the pattern of
violence and not erase the problem entirely.
"We know that as we act, we'll shift the problem, we will displace the problem, it
will move somewhere else," Police Chief Commissioner Simon Overland said.
"The message is to reassure the Victorian community that we understand that there is
a significant issue here, that we take it seriously."
Indian student spokesman Gautum Gupta said he was happy the problem was being
addressed but called for broader action.
"Any steps taken to make the streets safer are welcomed," he said.
"But there needs to be more sustained measures taken, or the problem will just move
from one place to another."
Indian students in Melbourne have resorted to escorting their countrymen and women
home in groups from railway stations known as danger spots.
As Indian protesters demonstrated for a second consecutive night in Sydney, the
federal government joined the Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in calling for
calm.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the Victorian and NSW governments
were working hard to combat racial violence and bring attackers to justice.
"But I simply echo the comments of my Indian counterpart - the time has now come for
restraint, the time has come for calm," he told ABC Television.
About 70 students took to the streets of Harris Park, in western Sydney, for the
second night in a row on Tuesday, angry at a series of attacks they say were
racially motivated.
But police said there was no evidence to support their claims that a man was
abducted outside his home and assaulted by a group of Middle Eastern men.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd warned protesters against vigilante action.
He said while acts of violence were "a regrettable part" of urban life, Australia
was one of the safest countries in the world for international students.
"It's unacceptable for anyone to commit an act of violence against any student of
any ethnicity anywhere in Australia," he told Fairfax Radio Network.
"And furthermore, we also need to render as completely unacceptable people taking
the law into their own hands."