mysql characters

Hi, I just moved my site from cpanel to virtualmin on a different server using migration tool.

However, I realized that foreign characters are not displaying correctly.

Mysql database is aroudn 1.8 gb so, I dont want to delete it or try to import it again if I can find a easy fix for this problem.

I have added these two lines to /etc/my.cnf but I couldnt restart mysql database (on centos) again.

character_set_server = utf8 collation_server = utf8_general_ci

Any suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks.