diff -Naur ejabberd-1.1.1.orig/src/odbc/ejabberd_odbc.erl ejabberd-1.1.1/src/odbc/ejabberd_odbc.erl
--- ejabberd-1.1.1.orig/src/odbc/ejabberd_odbc.erl	2006-05-07 19:05:12.549917750 +0400
+++ ejabberd-1.1.1/src/odbc/ejabberd_odbc.erl	2006-05-07 19:06:11.337591750 +0400
@@ -272,7 +272,6 @@
     case mysql_conn:start(Server, ?MYSQL_PORT, Username, Password, DB, NoLogFun) of
        {ok, Ref} ->
            erlang:monitor(process, Ref),
+           catch mysql_conn:fetch(Ref, "SET NAMES 'utf8';", self()),
            {ok, #state{db_ref = Ref, db_type = mysql}};
        {error, Reason} ->
            ?ERROR_MSG("MySQL connection failed: ~p~n", [Reason]),