UN star poll chief fired over sexual harassment charge

Perelli, 48, became a star at the world body for supervising polls in dangerous places like Afghanistan and Iraq, the Palestinian territories and East Timor. She has already consulted with lawyers and is expected to appeal the decision through UN judicial bodies.

Two senior UN officials told Reuters on Saturday that UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan had decided to dismiss Perelli following a report by an outside consulting firm and a separate UN investigation.

“I think it’s the first case of a person in the history of the UN who has learned that she has been fired by reading your report in the media,” Perelli told reporters.

She said she came back from a walk with her husband on Saturday when a friend called to say, “Have you heard the news? You have been fired.”

The letter from Burnham said that Annan had decided “that you be summarily dismissed for serious misconduct.”

The decision was based on an investigation of the UN personnel office that “you engaged in sexual and professional harassment of your staff and abused your authority as a manager,” Burnham wrote.

He said that “the patent nature and the gravity of this misconduct warrant immediate separation from service,” adding that she would not be given any pay or “termination indemnity.”

An adviser to Perelli, speaking on condition of anonymity said, on Monday that before Perelli was notified of the dismissal, her UN e-mail account was blocked and UN guards changed her office locks. UN chief spokesman Stephane Dujarric contended the office was not locked until Tuesday.

US Ambassador John Bolton on Monday criticised the timing of the intended firing only 10 days before elections in Iraq which Perelli had helped organise. —Reuters