Santiago  - A Chilean court formally admitted charges against 98 secrets service agents who served during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990), and the agents have until Tuesday to turn themselves in to authorities.

Judge Victor Motiglio charged the former military and police officers and civilians with the disappearance of opponents of the regime and of having taken part in the so-called Operation Colombo.

In Operation Colombo, Pinochet's dreaded secret service, Dina, tried to portray the deaths of 119 opponents of the regime, who had allegedly been killed earlier, as the result of internal clashes in July 1975.

Made-up articles about such clashes were published in several South American newspapers, in an attempt to weaken the increasing international criticism of human rights violations in Chile.

It was the first time since the end of the dictatorship that a Chilean judge has charged so many alleged agents of the regime.

Until now, 650 people have been sentenced or charged with human rights violations during the Pinochet regime, during which more than 3,000 people disappeared and were never been found and scores of thousands were tortured.

Montiglio said the latest charges were the result of "33 years of work by the judiciary."

Human rights groups greeted the decision, and Mireya Garcia, spokeswoman for the association of relatives of missing people detained by the dictatorship (AFDD), termed it an "extraordinarily positive step in favour of justice."

Former Dina boss, former general Manuel Contreras, is among those charged, as is his deputy Pedro Espinoza, the institution's former head of international operations Raul Iturriaga and the former general and secretary of state for war Cesar Manriquez. They are currently in prison, after being sentenced for other crimes committed during the dictatorship.

Espinoza's lawyer, Jorge Balmaceda, complained that the whole case is based on the fiction that the missing people are still alive and that there is therefore an ongoing kidnapping.

"Everyone knows that the missing are dead," Balmaceda said.

Chilean Justice officials have portrayed the case as an ongoing kidnapping to overcome the an amnesty provision approved during the dictatorship. (dpa)