UN: The UN Secretary-General, Mr Kofi Annan, has cleared the head of the UN's refugee agency of sexual harassment charges yesterday, but voiced concern about how Mr Ruud Lubbers handled the complaint.
"While I find that the complaint against Mr Lubbers cannot be sustained, I have written to him conveying in the strongest terms my concerns about the incident . . . and about subsequent events," Mr Annan said in a letter sent to staff of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
The 65-year-old former Dutch premier, Mr Lubbers, has been under investigation since early May by the UN Office of Internal Oversight Services over a complaint of sexual harassment filed by an American woman at the UNHCR's Geneva headquarters.
Mr Annan's letter did not detail the incidents in question but referred to "complaints of sexual harassment". Mr Lubbers strongly denied any wrongdoing in the incident involving the 51-year-old female, which occurred as she was leaving his office after a meeting also attended by other staff members shortly before Christmas 2003.
In a message to staff in late May, Mr Lubbers acknowledged making what he considered to be a "friendly gesture" which he said the woman had misunderstood. The New York Times reported that he later wrote to her at her home address asking her to drop the complaint and promising to protect her from reprisals.
The UN Secretary General said: "Subsequent events during the investigation . . . may have been construed as likely to influence the course of the investigation.
"I have underlined to him his duty to defend the right of staff members to make complaints about all forms of misconduct," Mr Annan wrote.
Mr Lubbers was not immediately available to comment.