By LALIT K JHA / THE IRRAWADDY Ban Ki-moon, center, Secretary General of United Nations shakes hands with Demetris Christofias, left, President of Cyprus and Dervis Eroglu, right, Turkish Cypriot leader after a meeting the three had at the UN Headquarters on Jan. 25, 2012. (Photo: AP) United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Wednesday that he is planning to make a trip to Burma in the near future and announced that his chief of staff, Vijay Nambiar, will soon transition to become his full-time special envoy to the country. “I am planning to visit in the near future Myanmar [Burma] to have further discussions with the Myanmar authorities,” Ban told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York. Ban said the UN has been playing a very key role in furthering the democratization process of Burma. “I am very pleased and encouraged by what the current Myanmar authorities led by President Thein Sein [have been doing], including the releasing of political prisoners,” he said. Respo