diff --git a/lib/awsbase/right_awsbase.rb b/lib/awsbase/right_awsbase.rb
index 30bafe3..ef85a89 100644
--- a/lib/awsbase/right_awsbase.rb
+++ b/lib/awsbase/right_awsbase.rb
@@ -1271,6 +1271,7 @@ def parse(xml_text, params={})
         end 
         xml.parse
       else
+        xml_text.force_encoding 'utf-8'
         REXML::Document.parse_stream(xml_text, self)
       end
     end