I did some modifications 1.7 ,1.8 and head as they work on the three ones.
Look on MDL-5650 for the screenshot-1
The simple matching, multichoice and short answer are imported correctly even with french accents.
Note that you should use the webct output file as it is, the actual version takes care of the utf_8 conversion.
Reports your problems in MDL-5650, do not create another bug.
And your success here
Pierre
P.S.1 This import the webct output when you choose to export from webct selected questions. For the complex XML file from the webct total course questions use the other tool.
P.S.2 The work is not finished , for example feedback is not correctly import.