Dhaka: The leader of wining grand alliance and President of the Awami League party, Sheikh Hasina told reporters at a press conference that she wants to see the release of Daw Aung San Suu Kyi who has been under house arrest in Burma since May, 2003.

The press conference was held in Dhaka soon after her victory in the December 29 election in Bangladesh.

She said that Suu Kyi should be released as soon as possible and her party is always in favour of democracy.

When Burmese journalist Ko Soe Min from Democratic Voice of Burma asked her to explain her stand on the detained Burmese democracy leader Suu Kyi, Hasina replied, "We want the immediate release of Suu Kyi."

Moreover, she said that Burma is a neighbouring country of Bangladesh and as such it wants good neighbourly relations with it.

She concluded that 'friendship with all and malice to none' is our cardinal foreign policy and we want a peaceful and democratic South Asian region.

A Burmese opposition woman leader Daw Mra Ra zarlin, who is a resident of Dhaka, said," Awami League president Sheikh Hasina is a sympathizer of the Burmese democracy movement and she mobilized the Bangladesh Parliament in 1992 to sign an appeal demanding release of Daw Aung Sann Suu Kyi. It is a good chance for our opposition groups working for Burmese democracy in Bangladesh."

A Burmese opposition leader said that Sheikh Hasina had once told that she and Daw Aung San Suu Kyi are sisters from two neighbouring countries in Asia as both their fathers - General Aung San and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman- are fathers of the nation of Burma and Bangladesh. Both leaders were assassinated.

A senior journalist in Bangladesh told Narinjara that Sheikh Hasina's life is like Mrs Suu and she also tried in the past to have Suu released and she is trying to promote democracy all over the world. So the relation between Burma and Bangladesh will be a little difficult now but government to government relation will be in normal during her tenure. #

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