Kanak

Two people were seriously injured Monday when violence flared between police and groups of militant Melanesians seeking independence in this troubled French colony in the southwestern Pacific, police said. Clashes erupted as members of a Melanesian political party, the Kanak Socialist National Liberation Front, put up roadblocks on the eastern coast in a bid to stop buses transporting children to school. The protesters stoned vehicles, injuring two motorists and damaging 20 cars.

Four Frenchmen have been arrested on charges of conspiring to smuggle guns and ammunition worth more than $30,000 to France's territory of New Caledonia for use against Melanesian rebels. The four men were captured in a raid Tuesday on a house at Yatala, about 40 miles south of Brisbane. A cache of shotguns, automatic rifles and ammunition were seized, and a court was told that the men admitted they were meant to assist white Caledonian settlers in fighting Kanak (local Melanesian) rebels.