Distressed ... Mr Chang said the police lied to him. Photo: Pat Scala
''THEY lied to me. At first they said the attackers were under investigation. Later they said they didn't know who some of them were.''
Nursing his swollen left hand with its reattached finger, a South Korean student whose pinkie was chopped off during an attack by a group of teenagers has spoken of his frustration with the subsequent police investigation.
The attack on Mr Chang, who is keeping his identity concealed, and a friend while walking through Melbourne parkland at night in September, has generated an outcry in South Korea, where media organisations are questioning whether Australia is a safe place to visit for foreigners.
Two weeks ago, French woman Fanny Desaintjores was threatened by passengers on a Melbourne bus for singing French songs. One man said, ''speak English or die'', while another commuter shouted: ''I'll f---ing boxcutter you right now, dog.''
Over the past two months two other South Koreans, a 33-year-old Sydney man and a 27-year-old man from Brisbane, also have been attacked.
On Wednesday, Mr Chang, who has worked as a designer and is left-handed, said he approached the South Korean consulate in Melbourne for help after becoming increasingly unhappy with police inquiries.
The South Korean newspaper, Chosun Ilbo, reported Mr Chang was approached by a group of teenagers who asked for a cigarette. When he refused, they assaulted him while shouting ''f---ing Chinese".
Mr Chang blacked out during the attack and was taken to hospital, where his little finger was reattached.
The newspaper also said Mr Chang accused the police of ''brushing off the assault simply as rowdy teenage behaviour'' and ''refused to inform him of the identities of the other teens". Mr Chang believes it was a racially motivated attack.
He feared his injuries, which included a broken arm, would affect his ability to work in future.
''I feel so embarrassed and humiliated,'' the TAFE student, 33, said. ''I don't want to go outside alone. I haven't even told my family about what happened. They don't know.''
Victoria Police is continuing its investigations after the South Korean government requested it conduct a ''more thorough and fair investigation", capture the perpetrators and compensate the victim.
The Foreign Ministry of South Korea also demanded Australia ''come up with measures to prevent future incidents", the Korean broadcaster KBS reported.
Mr Chang, from Seoul, still believed Australia was a ''safe and good country'', acknowledging every country had its share of offenders. But he said he was ''unhappy'' about the ongoing police investigation.
A spokesman from the South Korean consulate in Melbourne said it had formally requested Victoria Police ''carry out a thorough investigation that will also eliminate perceptions of unfairness and inadequacy from the victim and Korean public''.
Mr Chang said he was told by police he was responsible for the brutal attack because he ''was in the wrong place at the wrong hours'', sparking alarm in South Korea. But the spokesman said that, while police eventually apologised for the remark to Mr Chang, he might have ''misunderstood the intention behind it, taken in the wrong way due to cultural differences''.
Victoria Police said a 14-year-old boy from Doncaster was charged the day after the assault. ''Other suspects have since been identified, interviewed and either charged or released pending summons,'' a police spokeswoman said. ''None of the accused has been charged with any racially motivated crime offences.''
Mr Chang is now seeking compensation through the Victims of Crime Assistance Tribunal.
The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was aware of assaults against Koreans.
"The Australian Government and Australian state and territory police forces take very seriously any allegations of racially motivated crime,'' the spokeswoman said. ''Regrettably, crimes occur in Australia as they do in all countries, and it is important to be very careful in reaching conclusions that they are racially motivated.''
No comments:
Post a Comment