Izzat Ghazzawi, Palestine:

"It was well organized. It is the first conference I have attended with so many persons from different multi-cultural backgrounds. The issues of culture in conflict areas are naturally very important for us as well as for the participants from several other conflict areas.

One theme seldom discussed, in fact it was the first time I heard it discussed in this kind of assembly, was the economic conditions of the artist. How can put what I heard here to use? I am not really sure, maybe I will have to sleep on it and read the final papers on the outcome tomorrow.

But one important thing is that I've made a lot of friends. In Palestine, we organized a cultural conference in 1997 with 58 participants from different countries. For the next conference, in 1999, I'll have many new faces to invite."

Sezer Duru, Turkey:

"I'm very happy that this conference was organized parallel to the UNESCO conference. After all, the politicians are makers of war, not culture. I hope that the results from this conference will be read carefully by those in UNESCO.

The most important theme is peace in the world, and in this the intellectuals must get involved. There is a double morale in how the western governments are preaching one thing at home to their own citizen, but at the same time practising state terrorism directed at other countries. And I don't that any decent intellectual should ever be involved in such thing as the weapon industry.

Conferences like this one is especially important for us from conflict areas. Our countries are often ruled by despotism and we often faces difficulties in getting visas to other countries.

On thing I will work with upon returning home is the creation of institutes, similar to those on Rhodes and Gotland, but in Asian and along the Black Sea."

Kjartan Olafsson, Iceland:

"The conference was well organized, but I not so sure about the results. Most of the presentations have been very personal, some very funny and other moving. But the problem, as I se it, is that we have difficulties finding a common level for our discussions. After all, there is such an enormous difference between our conditions here in the Nordic countries and those artist who daily has to struggle for their own survival. Therefore, I believe that it would have been better if we had split up in small groups for the discussions. Therefore, the best thing with the conference was the chance to meet people from all those countries, it was very interesting – but the result I don't know".