VANCOUVER INDO-CANADIAN GANG VIOLENCE SPURS POLICE-COMMUNITY FORUM

VANCOUVER (CP) - Police are joining forces with the Vancouver area's large
Indo-Canadian community to find ways to stop the rising body count from a
decade of gang violence.

Police have documented more than 50 murders in the community since 1994 and
say alarmed community members now are reaching out for help. While perhaps
not as bad as the biker war in Quebec, the violence has been very public -
assassinations in night clubs, drive-by shootings and even attacks at
family gatherings.

It's created a climate of fear, with witnesses unwilling to come forward
and families forced to hire security for normally joyous events such as
weddings.

Police from Vancouver and suburbs as far east as Abbotsford in the Fraser
Valley hope a June 15 forum will produce ideas to help curb the violence
and keep young people from succumbing to the allure of gang life.

"This is not an issue police can solve alone," said RCMP spokesman Const.
Tim Shields.

Vancouver police spokesman Scott Driemel called the gangsters "a cancer on
the community.

"They should not be glamourized," he said. "They should be recognized for
what they are: the destroyers of hopes, of dreams and of lives."

The violence began rising with the 1994 separate killings of brothers Ron
and Jimmy Dosanjh, reputed drug kingpins.

Their deaths triggered a wave of tit-for-tat murders as gangs fought for
control of Vancouver's lucrative drug trade, also crossing over into
Vietnamese gangs.

Bindy Johal, one of the men accused of killing the Dosanjh bothers, was
himself gunned down while dancing in a suburban nightclub in 1998.

Last November, two Indo-Canadian men were found bound and shot in suburban
Coquitlam.

Around Christmas, armed men sprayed an Indo-Canadian wedding with gunfire,
killing one man and wounding three.

Teacher Gary Sidhu - who said in an interview last year he feared for his
life because several friends had been killed, disappeared or charged with
murder - was shot to death in front of his house in April.

RCMP Insp. Amrik Virk, the first Indo-Canadian to reach that rank in the
force, said the community of almost 200,000 members does not condone
violence by a fraction of its members.

"We have a small group of gangsters and because of their activity you have
a whole larger community whose image is tarnished," he said.

"If we can stop one young person from joining their ranks in the future,
then we've succeeded."

And, added Vancouver police Insp. Kash Heed, the community is no more
violence prone than any other.

"It's very important to remember the frequency of violence in the East
Indian community is not out of line with the violence that's taking place
in general in society right now," he said.

Likewise, the lack of co-operation investigators sometimes encounter cuts
across ethnic boundaries.

"There are segments in every ethnic group that are not prone to co-operate
with police and/or provide information," said Virk.

"There is a doctrine of silence or wilful blindness, which happens in every
community."

If anything, Indo-Canadians here have high respect for the police, said
Bhalwinder Waraich, member of the advisory committee to the Vancouver
police diversity relations unit.

Many originate from Punjab, where ancestors and relatives often served in
the police, he said.

"I think we have an excellent relationship" with police, said Waraich.

He said community involvement is important to break the allure of the gangs
and apparently easy money for young people.

"It's very easy when you see your buddy, your friends, suddenly loaded with
new equipment," he said.

"It's very easy for young kids to get lured into it not realizing what the
consequences are going to be down the road."

Virk said police in the region have not set up a special task force to
jointly investigate the violence but are sharing information.

"A task force is just a name for what is happening right now," he said.
"The borders are seamless, the exchange of information is ongoing and those
investigations are ongoing."