No Immediate Plans for Gambari to Visit Burma

By LALIT K JHA

NEW YORK—The United Nations said on Tuesday that there is no immediate plan for its special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari, to visit the country.

Gambari has a standing invitation from Burma’s ruling junta to visit the country, but he has shown reluctance to return in view of the regime’s recent crackdown on the pro-democracy leadership, ignoring appeals from the international community.

“He has no plans immediately to go to Myanmar [Burma],” Michele Montas, spokesperson for UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York.

“We don’t know when he is going. At this point, what he is doing is keeping in touch with a number of actors in the region,” Montas said in response to a question.

When asked about requests made by several pro-democracy leaders in Burma that the UN chief personally visit the country even if he is not assured of a positive result, Montas said that Ban’s views on the proposed visit have not changed.

“I think his position was made very clear when he spoke last time. I think he’s still observing the situation, and he has said that, before he goes there, he has to have some indication that it would be a fruitful meeting, a fruitful visit,” Montas said.
During his last interaction with UN correspondents, Ban said he would go to Burma only when he is sure that his visit would yield tangible results in terms of achieving his goal of establishing democracy in Burma, release of all political prisoners including Aung San Suu Kyi and protection of the human rights of its people.

Ban, who was earlier scheduled to visit Burma in December, cancelled his trip after the Burmese military junta went back on its words and intensified its crackdown on pro-democracy activists.

“He [Ban] is not going to go there just for the sake of going. He has to have some indications that his visit will mean something,” Montas said.