S. AFRICAN CONSERVATIVE PARTY SPLITS

Five dissident legislators who quit the right-wing Conservative Party Friday have vowed to form a new political movement that will join negotiations and drop race as the criterion for protecting Afrikaner interests.

The dissidents said they were leaving the party after an Aug. 13 meeting of the party's executive committee at which differences with the leadership over negotiations on the future of South Africa and the geography of an Afrikaner homeland became irreconcilable.

Conservative Party leader Andries Treurnicht said in a recent TV interview he would agree to a reduced Afrikaner homeland but could not accept talks with the African National Congress at this stage.

Party insiders, speaking anonymously, said there was strong support for the "new right" dissidents and that the extent of the split would depend on how a special party congress Saturday responds to policy changes proposed by the dissidents. The dissidents would negotiate a much reduced Afrikaner homeland in a confederal arrangement.