Gedcom files encoding

Dear Gedcom-ers,
   I just star with Gedcom.pm and things are beginning to work!

   But I have problems with files in Unicode.

   When files are in utf8 + BOM --> it returns error in first line (the BOM)

   If I remove the BOM and try again, apparently it does not pay 
attention to "1 CHAR UTF-8"

   Is there any extra thing to say in this cases?
Um abraço
J.Joao

0 HEAD
1 GEDC
2 VERS 5.5
2 FORM LINEAGE-LINKED
1 CHAR UTF-8
1 LANG Portuguese
1 SOUR MYHERITAGE
...