World Notes CANADA

Every night up to 3,000 angry residents of Chateauguay, Quebec, gathered outside the barricade that Mohawk Indians raised across the approach to the Mercier Bridge, a major artery into Montreal. Rowdies grappled with police and burned effigies of Mohawks hanging from a lamppost. Since a policeman was killed two weeks ago during an assault on another Mohawk blockage at Oka, 19 miles to the west, that town and Chateauguay have become scenes of an edgy standoff over the volatile issue of Indian land rights. The Indians have been protesting plans to expand a golf course into a forest that they say contains a sacred burial ground.

The problem grew last week as Native leaders across Canada declared their solidarity with the Mohawks. The chiefs said they would take their case to the U.N. and called on the world to impose economic sanctions against Canada to protest its treatment of Native peoples. The government of Prime Minister Brian Mulroney balked at negotiating under pressure, but said it would try to buy the land to transfer to the Natives -- once the barricades came down.