Php, rtf, utf8, é and é

Using this rtf class, I see my special characters getting converted, like é becomes \'C3\'A9

Then, when I try to generate the rtf file using:

header("Content-type: application/rtf; charset=utf-8");
header("Content-Disposition: attachment; filename=$file_rtf");
header("Expires: 0");
header("Cache-Control: must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0");
header("Cache-Control: private",false); 

I see that my é is getting echoed as é.

PS. My file is saved with utf-8 encoding thro’ DW, and my mysql default charset is also utf-8. I don’t have a problem when I display a character from the database, but is seen only when I type a special character directly into the page before calling the header.

Any help will be highly appreciated.
Cheers guys.