Vitoria-Gasteiz (Basque Country), 23 November 2019 (SPS) - The 44th European Coordinating Conference of Support to the Sahrawi People (EUCOCO), held Friday and Saturday in Vitoria-Gasteiz (Spain), will be an opportunity to call for the end of injustice, illegality and the Moroccan occupation in Western Sahara, and to open a new chapter of history.
EUCOCO Conference, organized every year in a European city since 1975, the year of the beginning of the conflict, will be held this year under the slogan “1975-2019, 44 years of struggle for independence. The decolonization of Western Sahara to ensure peace and stability in the region.”
EUCOCOs are undoubtedly the most important annual meetings of the European solidarity movement with the Sahrawi people. “Even if we continue to use the word European, the EUCOCOs possess an international dimension, especially as bodies and people coming from the five continent to participate in this event, with a more important presence of the European participants,” said the event’s organizers.
This solidarity event is marked every year by the participation of more than 500 peoples, representatives of governments which recognize the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), deputies and national and European elected representatives, governments of autonomous communities, deputations and municipalities of the Spanish State, political organizations and trade unions, non-governmental organizations and associations for friendship with the Sahrawi people, including the National Algerian Committee of Solidarity with the Sahrawi People (CNASPS).
The Sahrawi people are also represented by several authorities of the Sahrawi Government in these conferences to which also take part ambassadors and delegates of several countries.
The organizers hope that the “Conference contributes decisively to the efforts of the international community to reach a peaceful solution to the conflict and also to be a transcendental milestone in the peace process.”
"Vitoria-Gasteiz could be a meeting place to reach a solution to the conflict in Western Sahara, in accordance with the decisions and resolutions of the United Nations and international law,” they said, adding that “it could also be an opportunity to establish peace and end the sufferings of the Sahrawi people who deserve to live in dignity and freedom on their territory.”
“It is time to put an end to the injustice, illegality and Moroccan occupation in Western Sahara and to open a new chapter of the history. Time has come for the Spanish State to take its responsibilities,” he insisted. (SPS)
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