The new Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Myanmar will have a first visit to the country in June, according to UN sources. Newly-appointed UN envoy for Myanmar Christine Schraner Burgener told Masud Bin Momen, Bangladesh’s permanent representative to the United Nations in New York on May 22 that she was preparing for the visit to Myanmar next month.
Burgener was announced as the new representative for Myanmar on April 26 by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres following a month-long search for a diplomat. Until the appointment, Burgener had been Switzerland’s ambassador to Germany.
Burgener, who also served as Swiss ambassador to Thailand from 2009 to 2015, is set to hold a first round of meetings on Begali crisis with Myanmar officials following a recent Security Council visit to the country. Although the specific date is not known for the visit, the Myanmar government had agreed to accept Burgener as the new UN envoy, the UN sources said. The news of Burgener’s visit to Myanmar followed her meeting with Guterres on May 22 to talk on the Bengali issue of Myanmar.
The UN secretary-general appointed B u r g e n e r a s h i s n e w s p e c i a l representative for Myanmar based on the resolution passed by an open vote of the plenary of the 72nd session of the UN general assembly on December 24, 2017. The resolution was originally adopted by the third committee of the UN general assembly on November 16 that year to allow the secretary-general to appoint a special envoy to work on the Bengali crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine state.
