The United Nation secretary-general’s special envoy Christine Schraner Burgener on Myanmar is preparing to visit that country next month. She said this while paying a courtesy call Bangladesh’s permanent representative to UN ambassador Masud Bin Momen on Monday, according to a press release forwarded by the permanent mission yesterday.

Felicitating her on the assumption of the responsibility, ambassador Momen invited the special envoy to visit Bangladesh as soon as possible at a convenient time.

In response, Burgener said that she is willing to hear directly from the Rohingyas who took shelter in the settlements in Cox’s Bazar.

She was full of praise for Bangladesh to provide humanitarian shelter to the displaced Rohingyas.

The special envoy expressed optimism that she will be able to discharge her responsibilities with the cooperation from all countries concerned including Bangladesh. On November 16, last year, the third committee of the UN general assembly adopted an open resolution allowing the secretary-general to appoint a special envoy to work on stopping violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, ensuring humanitarian assistance for all and safe and dignified repatriation of the hundreds of thousands of Rohingyas.

This resolution was finally passed by an open vote of the plenary of the 72nd session of UN general assembly on December 24, 2017. Based on that, the UN secretary-general appointed Burgener on April 26.

The special envoy on Myanmar is a citizen of Switzerland and a career diplomat. Prior to this appointment, she served Switzerland as ambassador to Germany and Thailand.