diff -urN IceEJ-1.1.0-orig/src/IceInternal/BasicStream.java IceEJ-1.1.0/src/IceInternal/BasicStream.java
--- IceEJ-1.1.0-orig/src/IceInternal/BasicStream.java	2006-03-07 21:25:36.000000000 +0100
+++ IceEJ-1.1.0/src/IceInternal/BasicStream.java	2007-05-14 12:26:21.000000000 +0200
@@ -952,7 +952,15 @@
             final int len = v.length();
             if(len > 0)
             {
-		byte[] arr = v.getBytes();
+		byte[] arr;
+		try
+		{
+		    arr = v.getBytes("UTF-8");
+		}
+		catch(java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException e)
+		{
+		    arr = v.getBytes();
+		}
 		writeSize(arr.length);
 		expand(arr.length);
 		_buf.put(arr);
@@ -1025,7 +1033,14 @@
 			// java.nio.charset.CharsetDecoder and to throw
 			// MarshalException if the string won't decode.
 			//
-                        return new String(_stringBytes, 0, len);
+			try
+			{
+                            return new String(_stringBytes, 0, len, "UTF-8");
+			}
+			catch(java.io.UnsupportedEncodingException e)
+			{
+                            return new String(_stringBytes, 0, len);
+			}
                     }
                     else
                     {