Enough eyewash! Amnesty International wants the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) to ensure concrete change in Burma.

It wants leaders attending the 11th Asean summit in Kuala Lumpur to use their influence with Burma to effect real change in a situation which has seen "no significant improvement" in 17 years.

AI called a press conference in Kuala Lumpur today to raise the plight of hundreds who have been imprisoned under appalling conditions for years, and to urge the Burmese authorities to release all prisoners of conscience and carry out judicial reform.

Asia-Pacific director Purna Sen said the human rights situation has deteriorated since early this year - despite some small positive developments - with more arrests made on political grounds.

Senior politicians have also been subjected to "unfair and secret trials" and have received jail sentences stretching to 109 years.

Although the military junta released some 260 political prisoners in July, she said it has failed to release long-term prisoners of conscience. At least 60 individuals from various professions have been arrested or sentenced for political reasons, she said.

"People are being prosecuted for reporting human rights violations and talking to journalists. Lengthy prison sentences are handed down to political figures for engaging in political discussion. Torture continues, and people are dying in suspicious circumstances in prisons.

"The use of imprisonment to silence senior political leaders is presenting a significant obstacle to a resolution of the political deadlock in the country."

Responsibility of all

AI also released a 114-page report on the human rights situation in Burma. Entitled 'Travesties of Justice: Continued misuse of the legal system', it provides an update on the treatment of more than 1,160 political prisoners and reiterates long-standing concerns on the administration of justice in the country.

Sen said human rights violations in Burma go largely unchecked by the justice system and expressed little hope for domestic redress of human rights violations.

She stressed that it is the responsibility of all governments to ensure that flagrant violations do not continue in Burma and that Asean has a particular responsibility to address grave human rights violations in one of its member-states.

She added that the ongoing meetings of Asean leaders should serve as an opportunity to ensure that the military junta takes comprehensive action in order to end human rights violations in Burma.

Welcoming the calls made by Asean foreign ministers for the release of Burmese democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi, she pointed out: "What is needed in Burma, to protect and promote human rights, is a wholesale change in the nature of the judicial process and legal framework."

Asean member-states have shown much frustration over the junta's lack of progress in meeting its pledges on democracy and human rights.

AI has collected over 8,000 signatures from 147 countries calling for change after holding a month-long campaign. The petition will be sent to the Burmese authorities.

Also present at the press conference were AI Malaysia executive director Josef Roy Benedict and Asean Inter-Parliamentary Myanmar Caucus chief Zaid Ibrahim ( photo ).