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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 1, 1992                   TAG: 9201010129
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: HOLIDAY 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

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PEACE CORPS TO AID REPUBLICS

Just when you thought you couldn't be surprised anymore by the events unfolding in the former Soviet Union, another comes along that makes you wonder.

Several of the former republics have asked the Peace Corps for volunteers to teach their people how to set up a business, how to clean up pollution and how to speak English.

The agency, which is funded by the U.S. government, hopes to send 500 volunteers to the newly formed Commonwealth of Independent States in the next two years, said director Elaine Chao.

"Democracy is based on a stable and vibrant economy," she said. And learning the principles of capitalism is a high priority in eastern Europe as it emerges from decades of totalitarian rule, she added.

Under the communists, the Peace Corps was banned from the Soviet Union.

But as soon as the Soviet empire started crumbling, the Peace Corps moved in. Since the summer of 1990, it has sent volunteers into Hungary, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.

In recent weeks, Armenia and Ukraine have asked for Peace Corps help and preliminary discussions are under way to decide the kind of programs they need, said Chao.

A team of experts will travel to three other former republics - Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania - in mid-January to set up programs there, too. The first wave of volunteers will reach the Baltic states in June, Chao said.

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