THE United Nations special envoy to Myanmar, Mr Ibrahim Gambari, has unveiled plans to return to the country next month for more talks on the national reconciliation process.

Mr Gambari announced the visit, planned for mid-October, during a news conference at UN headquarters in New York on September 5.

The proposed visit will be Mr Gambari’s first this year and the third since he was appointed special envoy to Myanmar by Mr Ban’s predecessor, Mr Kofi Annan, in May last year.

Mr Ban reaffirmed the veteran Nigerian diplomat to the post in May.
Since then, Mr Gambari has visited Western and Asian capitals to drum up support for the UN’s efforts to help Myanmar.

Mr Gambari told the news conference last week that the initial consultations in which he had been involved were complete.

The consultations had taken place during visits to Washington, Beijing, New Delhi, Tokyo, Moscow, Paris, the Brussels headquarters of the European Union and London, as well as countries neighbouring Myanmar.

Those with whom he held talks during the visits had expressed “a readiness to proactively consider ways of working with one another, Myanmar, and the United Nations to get concrete results,” a UN statement quoted Mr Gambari as telling the news conference.

“Thus for the first time, all the key actors are now mobilised and the international community is moving in a single direction,” Mr Gambari said.

Mr Gambari said as a new approach, the UN was focusing not only on political and human rights issues, but also on helping Myanmar to promote its standards of healthcare and education.