Apr 1, 2008 (AP), An ethnic minority group that was pressured by Beijing has deported to China two key Tibetan political activists who were hiding in northern Burma, a dissident group said.

The two, who had been hunted by authorities after they fled from China’s Yunnan province, were turned over to the Chinese shortly after their capture Sunday, the Kachin News Group said in a press release Monday.

The activists, who were not identified, were captured by the Kachin Independence Organization, or KIO, one of several ethnic minority groups that has signed cease-fire agreements with Burma’s ruling junta after decades of rebellion.

The Kachin News Group, one of several news agencies based in Thailand that are operated by anti-junta activists, said the two Tibetans were arrested by the KIO in the Burmese town of Laiza.

The KIO could not immediately be reached for comment.

The KIO exercises some autonomy in areas under its control, and its military wing has been allowed to retain its weapons, but tensions between the Kachin and the central government have been reported in recent years.

China has tightened security in Tibetan areas of Yunnan province following bloody anti-Chinese riots in the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

Burma’s military government, which has close ties with Beijing, said last week that it opposed any moves to link recent unrest in Tibet with the Beijing Olympics in August. It said the unrest in Tibet was "purely the internal affairs" of China.