Manila  - Democracy activists took to the streets in the Philippines on Friday to demand more action from the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) against Myanmar for its poor human rights record.

The protestors, numbering around 90, picketed the Thai embassy in Manila and urged ASEAN to put Myanmar, formerly called Burma, on the "hot seat" during its annual leaders' summit in Thailand, which started Friday.

"The military regime of Burma has a lot to answer," said Resti Delizo of the Free Burma Coalition-Philippines. "Its human rights record is not showing any degree of significant improvement and ASEAN should not take a blind eye to this issue."

The demonstrators, who staged a mock prison to highlight the plight of political prisoners in Myanmar, called on ASEAN to establish a mechanism to monitor the human rights situation in the group's most notorious member country.

"We challenge the ASEAN to begin monitoring the human rights situation in Burma, schedule a visit to Burma's labour camps, detention centres and try to see and feel the atmosphere of dictatorship there," Delizo said.

"Right now, ASEAN should go beyond its usual rhetoric and act concretely," he added.

"The peoples of Burma are suffering politically and economically because their government doesn't care even if millions will die in extreme hunger," Delizo said, noting that Myanmar's military junta treats the national coffers as its "personal purse."

Aside from the Philippines, Thailand and Myanmar, ASEAN consists of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia.

A proposed emergency fund to help mitigate the impact of the global financial crisis in ASEAN member-countries and the creation of a human rights body were among the issues expected to be discussed at the ASEAN summit. (dpa)