SANTIAGO (Reuters) -- A judge in Chile ordered on Thursday the arrest
                  of a retired army general for questioning about the deaths of leftist youths in
                  1987.

                  Judge Hugo Dolmesch asked for the arrest of Alvaro Corbalan, a former
                  head of the CNI intelligence agency during the 1973-1990 military regime of
                  former dictator Augusto Pinochet.

                  Dolmesch is investigating the so-called "Albania Operation," in which CNI
                  agents killed 12 members of the former armed leftist guerrilla group Frente
                  Patriotico Manuel Rodriguez (FPMR).

                  Dolmesch also asked for the army to turn in for questioning ex-CNI agent
                  Sergio Vargas.

                  Police have arrested seven former CNI agents for questioning about the
                  deaths.

                  At least 3,000 people were killed or disappeared in witch hunts against
                  leftist sympathisers during Pinochet's rule, which began with a bloody coup.
                  Some 52,000 went into exile and thousands were tortured.

                  Pinochet, 83, is in London waiting under police guard for British Home
                  Secretary Jack Straw to decide whether he should be extradited to Spain
                  for prosecution on charges of torture, genocide and murder.

                   Copyright 1998 Reuters.