2nd Autopsy Held on S. Pacific Militant

Authorities conducted a second autopsy on the body of Melanesian militant Eloi Machoro on Sunday after his family charged that he was shot in the back by police during rioting in the French South Pacific territory of New Caledonia.

The family demanded the autopsy after officials said the first one showed that Machoro was shot in the shoulder from the front. The results of the second autopsy were not immediately available.

About 300 Kanaks, as the indigenous Melanesians are known here, staged a vigil outside the Noumea funeral parlor where Machoro’s body was being kept. He is expected to be buried today in the east coast village of Canala.

Noumea was tense Sunday after a violent 24 hours in which whites rioted over the killing Friday of Yves Tual, 17-year-old son of a white farmer.

Machoro, 40, who led a Melanesian campaign for the territory’s independence from France, was killed early Saturday, and a state of emergency was declared a few hours later. In addition, France announced that it was sending another 1,000 military police to the island group, which it has ruled since 1853.

Machoro’s killing appeared to dim hopes that a struggle between the Melanesians and white European settlers could be resolved peacefully by a referendum in July.

About 19 people have now been killed in violence over the last two months between settlers and Melanesians, who make up about 43% of the 145,000 population.

The wrangle over Machoro’s death prompted Edgard Pisani, French government representative to the territory, to issue a statement Sunday on the circumstances.

The statement said that early Saturday, police surrounded a house containing Machoro and about 35 Melanesians near an isloated village about 50 miles from Noumea. Settlers in the region had reported being threatened by the militants.

Police called on the group to surrender, but Machoro came out of the house firing, Pisani said. Police fired twice, one shot killing Machoro and the other an aide, Marcel Nonaro, the statement said.