Defections from the Burmese Army continue with 20 more soldiers deserting from the frontlines and joining the ethnic Kachin armed group, the Kachin Independence Army (KIA) in Burma's northern Kachin State, last week, said local sources.

The Burmese soldiers defected from Pajau Bum and Na Hpaw Bum, the former KIA headquarters which is close to the Hpalap Bum based KIA's Division headquarters and 5th Brigade Command in east of Kachin State. The deserters were secretly sent to the area after the Burmese junta started a military offensive against the Kokang ceasefire group in August, said frontline sources.

The Burmese soldiers fled from the frontlines leaving their arms. The defectors were searched for in the two Kachin villages close to the frontlines on the Myitkyina-Bhamo highway road--- Gangdau Yang and Nam San Yang by the Burmese military, said local eyewitnesses.

Sources close to the deserters said no one was captured by the Burmese military but they were being searched.

The wives of the Burmese soldiers in the village-military bases are also preparing to flee to safer places if civil war resumes between the Burmese Army and the KIA, villagers of Gangdau Yang and Nam San Yang said,

KIA officers in Laiza headquarters on the Sino-Burma border in Kachin State said, around 50,000 Burmese soldiers have been deployed around KIA Hpalap Bum Division Command, 3rd and 5th brigades situated along the China border.

KIA officers also added that the Burmese Army bases in Kachin State are battling desertions because soldiers are being discriminated against. They get low monthly salaries, with no chance to have personal business enterprises and have to work under tough military rules. But high ranking army officers have personal business ventures and no action is taken against them when they flout military rules.

On the other hand, over 70,000 Burmese soldiers with heavy artilleries have patrolled the territory of the United Wa State Army (UWSA) in Eastern Shan State after the junta used dishonest means to capture the Kokang ceasefire group's capital Laogai on August 24, said UWSA sources.

The two strongest ethnic military alliances in the country--- KIA and UWSA are preparing to defend themselves against Burmese troops before and after the October 30 deadline set by the junta for transforming their armed-wings to the Burmese Army-controlled Border Guard Force (BGF) said the groups' sources.

Till now, the two armed groups have rejected junta-proposed Border Guard Force and view it as a plan by the junta to disarm them, said UWSA and KIA sources.