Three officers of the Kachin Independence Organization (KIO) have been arrested in two different places in Burma’s northern Kachin State by the Burmese Army, KIO sources said.

All three officers are working in the Department of General Administration (DGA), the civil administration department of the KIO, a KIO official said on the condition of anonymity today.

Maraw Brang Mai and Salang Kaba La Seng, officers of Seng Zup Ninghtawn (Seng Zup township) of KIO, which is situated on the outskirts of Seng Tawng town, Hpakant jade mining township, in western Kachin State, were arrested on March 24 at about 1:30 p.m. local time by the Burmese Army’s Infantry Battalion (IB) No. 74, KIO sources said.

KIA soldiers in the frontline in eastern Kachin State, Northern Burma.

The two KIO officers were circled and detained by more than ten Burmese soldiers when they arrived at “Shwe Chin-te petrol shop” (meaning Golden Lion petrol shop in English), in Seng Tawng, to collect taxes, according to KIO sources.

IB No. 74 is based in Mogaung (Mu Gawng in Kachin) and it is currently operating in Seng Tawng under the command of Hpakant Military Strategic Command, according to local jade traders.

Sources from battalion 6 of the Kachin Independence Army (KIA), the armed branch of the KIO, based in Seng Ra in Hpakant, said the two officers were arrested for “security reasons” and have been moved to the prison cells at Hpakant Police Station from Military Strategic Command, on March 26.

They were also tortured and beaten by Burmese soldiers before they were handed over at the police station, sources close to the detainees said.

The KIO resumed tax collection in Kachin State after it was labeled as “insurgents” by the Burmese military last October.

Earlier, Yaw Bawm, ranking township deputy administrative officer of the KIO was arrested near Nam Koi River, in Myitkyina, on March 10 by the Myitkyina-based IB No. 37, KIO sources said.

The reasons for the arrest and his whereabouts are not known.

At the same time, a young Kachin man named Maran Brang San Awng was detained at Nawng Lung military gate by the Burmese Army’s Light Infantry Battalion (LIB) No. 318, based in Danai, sources close to the young man said.

He was later sent to the Burmese military training camp at Pyin Daung, in Myitkyina, the sources added.

More KIO/KIA people have been arrested and interrogated by the Burmese military since the KIO rejected the junta’s proposal to transform into the military-controlled Border Guard Force, on August 30, 2010.

The KIO is the second strongest ethnic armed group in the country and is a member of the recently-formed ethnic political and military alliance known as the United Nationalities Federal Union (UNFU). It is ready to resist possible offensives by the Burmese Army, KIO officers said.