SOUTH AMERICA : Chile Police Chief’s ‘Vacation’ Ends Rights Standoff for Now : He is suspected of covering up killings under military regime.

SANTIAGO, Chile — Gen. Rodolfo Stange, chief of Chile’s militarized national police, refused to resign when President Eduardo Frei asked him to early this month. When Stange later agreed to go on “vacation,” the tense standoff was at least temporarily resolved.

But the episode gave Frei, who took office in March, an early sample of troubles he may face as the second civilian president since the end of military rule in 1990.

Stange is accused of covering up police guilt in the brutal slaying of three Communists in 1985. Numerous military and police officers, in active service and retired, are implicated in other pending cases of human rights violations under the military regime of Gen. Augusto Pinochet.

Pinochet, who ruled the country from 1973 to 1990, remains as commander of the army. A clause in the Chilean constitution, enacted in 1980, leaves the president without authority to remove commanders in chief of the military branches or of the Carabineros, the militarized police force. Stange’s recent refusal to step down has brought renewed demands that this clause be changed.

The abduction and killing of three Communist Party members in March, 1985, was one of the most notorious cases of human rights violations under Pinochet’s right-wing regime. The bodies of the three men were found on the outskirts of Santiago with their throats slit.

Gen. Cesar Mendoza, then-director general of the Carabineros, resigned in August, 1985, after police officers were implicated in the killings. Stange succeeded Mendoza as director general of the Carabineros and as a member of Pinochet’s governing junta.

On March 31, special judge Milton Juica convicted 15 former police officers and a civilian for the 1985 abductions and slayings. Juica also accused Stange and six retired officers, including former Director General Mendoza, of dereliction of duty and withholding evidence in the case.

Denying any wrongdoing, Stange rejected recommendations by government ministers that he resign. Frei summoned him and “stated the convenience of his retirement,” said a statement issued by the presidential palace.

“I am not resigning,” Stange told reporters after the meeting. Further government pressure resulted in an announcement by the Carabineros that Stange would take a “vacation.” But while the government says the vacation will be indefinite in length, Stange’s lawyer and the personnel director of the Carabineros have insisted it will be for 30 days, leading to fears the confrontation could be repeated next month.

Evidence against Stange includes a secret tape recording of a 1985 meeting in which the general told other officers that he would lie to defend Carabineros in the murder case. A civilian member of a military court has been appointed to conduct a criminal investigation.

Even if Stange does not give Frei more headaches, other cases may, especially if they involve the army. Twice since Pinochet left power, the army has alarmed the country with demonstrations of discontent, including putting units on alert, partly to protest legal and media concentration on rights violations under the military.