diff --git a/emacs.spec b/emacs.spec
index 7b52367..3e4edcb 100644
--- a/emacs.spec
+++ b/emacs.spec
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 Summary: The libraries needed to run the GNU Emacs text editor.
 Name: emacs
 Version: 21.2
-Release: 15
+Release: 16
 License: GPL
 URL: http://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/
 Group: Applications/Editors
@@ -255,6 +255,9 @@ fi
 %dir /usr/share/emacs/%{version}/leim
 
 %changelog
+* Fri Aug  9 2002 Trond Eivind Glomsr�d <teg@redhat.com> 21.2-16
+- Handle UTF-8 input (#70855).
+
 * Tue Aug  6 2002 Trond Eivind Glomsr�d <teg@redhat.com> 21.2-15
 - Don't use canna by default (# 70870)
 
diff --git a/site-start.el b/site-start.el
index b1ee3c5..5805b10 100644
--- a/site-start.el
+++ b/site-start.el
@@ -17,3 +17,17 @@
 (require 'rpm-spec-mode)
 (setq auto-mode-alist
       (cons '("\\.spec$" . rpm-spec-mode) auto-mode-alist))
+
+;; Enable utf-8 in locales using utf-8. In RHL, all of these end in .UTF-8
+;; The utf-8 support in emacs is limited, problems can be expected - especially
+;; outside latin1
+
+(cond ((equal (substring (concat "     " (getenv "LANG")) -5) "UTF-8")
+      (setq locale-coding-system 'utf-8)
+      (set-terminal-coding-system 'utf-8)
+      (set-keyboard-coding-system 'utf-8)
+      (set-selection-coding-system 'utf-8)
+      (prefer-coding-system 'utf-8)))
+
+
+