May 26, 1986

As many as 30,000 people are said to have been made refugees in their own land and more than 30 have died in a week of violence pitting conservative black vigilantes against loyalists of radical black leaders in this squatter camp near Cape Town. The fighting, in which the radicals were defeated, has devastated large tracts of the camp, leaving the burned shells of hundreds of shacks as monuments to the conflict. The conflict has not only highlighted territorial disputes between rival groups in the Crossroads, but also raised questions about the role of South Africa's security forces, which actively supported the vigilantes, according to several reports. In many of South Africa's segregated black townships, conservative black groups have banded together to form vigilante units opposed to the growing influence of youthful black radicals.

Leading members of the Senate and House of Representatives agree that the Senate Finance Committee's tax-revision bill will be changed substantially before it can become law. When Senators and Representatives sit down in conference to reconcile the Senate version of tax legislation with the one produced by the House, the lawmakers say, the conferees from the House will have at least as much say in shaping the final product as those from the Senate. This means that despite the intense interest in the details of the Finance Committee's bill and the widespread support for it, some of the measure's most striking aspects - such as its 27 percent top tax rate, its repeal of most deductions for Individual Retirement Accounts and its assault on real estate tax shelters - are by no means certain to become law. Views of Dole and Packwood ''There is some strength in the House bill,'' said Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, the majority leader, who is sure to be a Senate conferee, ''and ours is not totally meritorious.'' Senator Bob Packwood, Republican of Oregon and chairman of the Finance Committee, agrees with that assessment. The day after his committee approved its bill, he said: ''The House bill has lots of good reform in it. If we can marry the best parts of both bills, we will produce a better bill.''

A Circle Line sightseeing vessel carrying 600 people on a pre-Memorial Day trip around Manhattan sideswiped the pilings of the Willis Avenue Bridge in an ebb tide on the Harlem River yesterday. The police said that between 15 and 20 passengers were injured, one seriously. The bulkhead and railings on the port quarter of the 165-foot vessel were mangled in the mishap that occurred shortly after 3 P.M. Wood pilings on the sea wall under the bridge were ripped apart and fragments were flung into a group of passengers seated on folding chairs on the main deck. A Skull Fracture Most of the injured people sustained cuts and bruises, but one suffered an apparent skull fracture. However, most passengers on board heard and felt only a crunching bump and were all but unaware that the red, green and white double-decker tour boat had been in an accident.

Five Central American Presidents appeared today to have failed to reach agreement on a common approach to resolving the conflicts that have troubled their region. After two days of discussions that several officials described as difficult, the Presidents of Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua accepted a final communique that bluntly said they had ''some differences and some discrepancies'' that continued to divide them. Although the communique stated the Presidents' intention to accept a regional peace treaty, several officials said the accord would not be signed by the June 6 deadline set by the mediators. Instead, they said, the signing would be postponed to allow further negotiations, an indication of the differences dividing leaders in the region.

The line twisted through 4,150 miles of America, through city streets, across bridges, through deserts and mountain passes. Its links included the rich, the poor and the homeless, movie stars and public officials, a flotilla of hot air balloons, cowboys in covered wagons, a chain of paper dolls and, at times, a bit of Hollywood hokum. And for 15 minutes, organizers of the Hands Across America event said, it connected millions of Americans from Battery Park in New York City to the Pacific Ocean in a singing, hand-holding statement of support for the nation's hungry and homeless. ''Bobby Kennedy said that ideas are pebbles you drop in the water and ripples flow from that,'' said Ken Kragen, the Los Angeles promoter who conceived the campaign. ''This is a boulder we dropped in the water. Tidal waves will come from this.'' #6 Million Said to Have Joined In Mr. Kragen estimated last night that about 6 million people, each of whom was asked to give at least $10, had participated in the chain and related events.

Chester Bowles, an adviser to four Democratic Presidents in a public career that spanned three decades and included service as an ambassador, Congressman and Governor of Connecticut, died yesterday at his home in Essex, Conn. He was 85 years old. A family spokesman, Lise Stone Heintz, said that Mr. Bowles died at 12:30 A.M. of complications arising from his 22-year struggle with Parkinson's disease, which results in the deterioriation of the body's nervous system. He also suffered a stroke last week, she said. Gov. William A. O'Neill of Connecticut, who ordered that flags on public buildings be flown at half staff for 30 days, praised Mr. Bowles for inspiring others to enter public service and said: ''He holds a very special place in the hearts of Connecticut citizens, whom he served so ably as Governor and a Congressman.''

The Reagan Administration is considering reducing the number of officials with access to classified documents as part of a broad effort to control the unauthorized disclosure of sensitive national security information, Administration sources said today. The sources said the Administration was also considering reducing the amount of information that falls within the classified category in the hope it will then be easier to monitor those documents and prevent their unauthorized disclosure. The proposals are contained in a memorandum prepared by middle-level Administration intelligence officials for review at a meeting this week of President Reagan's top national security advisers, the sources said. It has been presented to Adm. John M. Poindexter, Mr. Reagan's national security adviser, they said.

Amid the state-built housing and office blocks of Poland, there are now close to a thousand new, innovative buildings rising, spiraling and sprawling. And all of them are Roman Catholic churches. Once again, as in the days of flying buttresses and ribbed vaults, church architecture is in the vanguard. Poles raised in a postwar urban environment of monotonous right angles now often stop to admire the new churches being built with swallow tail copper roofs, textured exposed brick and small intimate spaces.

Two vintage jets collided in the air today before more than 100,000 spectators at an air show here, killing two British airmen.

Virgilio Barco Vargas, the candidate of the opposition Liberal Party, scored a landslide victory in the Colombian presidential election today. Mr. Barco, a soft-spoken 65-year-old political centrist with long experience in government, has pledged to reduce poverty and end political violence during his four-year term, which begins in August. He is also expected to emphasize improving ties with Washington. With results announced from four-fifths of the country's 41,104 voting booths, Mr. Barco was leading with 58.4 percent of the votes counted against 35.8 percent for Alvaro Gomez Hurtado of the governing Conservative Party.

President Corazon C. Aquino today named 45 people from diverse political and religious groups to a body that will draft a new Philippine constitution. The appointees are more varied than the ministers who make up Mrs. Aquino's Cabinet and the groups that support her. She did not name known Communists to the 50-member panel, but left five slots vacant for the ''opposition,'' meaning the forces still loyal to former President Ferdinand E. Marcos. ''I prefer to leave the selection to their full discretion in keeping with the democratic spirit of the times,'' Mrs. Aquino said at a rally celebrating her first three months in office.

Witnesses and army officials said today that Tamil guerrillas had killed 20 Sinhalese settlers in this jungle hamlet, including 10 children, many by gunshots at point-blank range. The attackers forced 11 people, including some children, to kneel on the banks of a canal and shot them in the head, mostly at point-blank range, witnesses said of the two-hour attack on Saturday. ''Suddenly there was noise and shouts,'' said Indra Kumari, 10 years old, whose grandmother, aunt and uncle were shot and set on fire. ''I heard shots, and grandma called for uncle,'' she said. ''I ran into the jungle and hid. I could see men surrounding the house.''