November 19, 1984

International Cocaine traffickers in Peru killed at least 17 people employed by a United States-financed program to destroy coca crops, the Peruvian police said. All of the slain people were identified as Peruvian employees of the Coca Reduction Organization, which is part of a $30 million program the United States is financing along the Huallaga River where most of Peru's illegal coca is grown. The slayings took place at a jungle campsite. (Page A1, Column 1.) Democracy stirred for the first time in KwaNdebele, South Africa's second smallest tribal ''homeland'' for black people, which is near Pretoria. Last week there was voting for the 16 elected places in the 72-member Legislative Assembly, the first elections ever. No votes were counted at some polling places. (A1:2.)

Past the room where the city's biggest collection of Tiffany lamps glows softly in the dimness, past the dramatic Hudson River School landscapes, the crumbling manuscripts about women in American politics, people will dance tonight at the New-York Historical Society. Music will waft by the 19th-century firemen's parade with its bouquets unfolding from upturned trumpets, the coach that may have carried George Washington to his first inauguration, the Rembrandt Peale painting of a skeptical Thomas Jefferson. A piano will tinkle New York songs in the first-floor auditorium in the society's museum on Central Park West as Nancy Donner shows slides and runs a quiz on trivia from the city's rich history. Tomorrow, the society will be 180 years old.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19, 1984 The Economy A proposal is nearing completion that would raise taxes for some businesses by modifying accelerated depreciation rules and reduce taxes for many other companies by lowering rates over all, according to Administration officials. However, the Treasury Department bill, which focuses on tax simplification, would have a difficult time on Capitol Hill, leading tax specialists say. (Page A1.)

Not long after Phil Simms found Lionel Manuel for the 11-yard touchdown that turned out to be the difference in the Giants' 16-10 victory over the St. Louis Cardinals yesterday, Bob Sheppard's voice was heard over the public-address system. ''Here are scores of other games,'' he announced. ''In the fourth period, Philadelphia 16, Washington 10. And in the third period, Buffalo 14, Dallas . . . (a long pause) . . . 3.''

Time was when LaVell Edwards did not have to endure this. He could put on his favorite windbreaker, hop into his Pontiac and drive down to the University Mall with his wife, Patti, and quietly enjoy an ice cream cone. Or a soda. Or he could walk round this quiet city, which is a short drive from where he was born in Orem, one of 14 children of farming parents, and raised as a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But no more. Edwards is the football coach at Brigham Young University. And for the first time in the school's history, the Cougars are in the hunt for the final No. 1 ranking in football. When the news-agency polls are released this week, the Cougars, the nation's only unbeaten major college with an 11-0 record, are likely to be No. 1 because top- ranked Nebraska and No. 2 South Carolina both lost Saturday. No wonder Edwards has become a celebrity. People who have known him for years gawk and point as he ambles by. And hoardes of pupils ask for autographs when he attends local high school games.