FREETOWN (Reuters) - The United Nations was pressured by the president of Sierra Leone to cut short the tour of its mission chief ahead of an election later this year, the envoy said in a letter seen by Reuters on Monday.
Michael von der Schulenburg, who had been expected to stay until next year but has just left, told his headquarters in a December 22 letter that the United Nations' credibility and success story in the West African state risked being undermined if it caved in to "unreasonable and unjustified pressures."
A spokesman for the United Nations would not comment on the letter while a spokesman for President Ernest Bai Koroma denied he had ever called for the United Nations to withdraw the mission chief.
The election, slated for November, will be a test of what the United Nations has touted as a success story for a reconstruction effort following 11 years of war that ended in 2002.
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