MACDO was shocked to learn recently that the RFK Foundation has awarded Ms.A.H honorable recognition

Moroccan American Community Development Organization "MACDO" and its members were shocked to learn this week that the RFK Foundation has awarded Ms. Aminatou Hider honorable recognition.  For those who don't know this lady, she is a political advocate for the Polisario, a military guerilla group that seeks the destruction of the friendly, peaceful, sovereign nation of Morocco. Even though MACDO members emailed the organizers, including the honorable senator Edward Kennedy, expressing their disapproval, MACDO's members decided to attend the event to express their disapproval face to face, not only to the organizers, but also to the dignitaries who attended the event. When we arrived, Mrs. Hider was speaking. Most of her speech was full of contradictions...

For example, Mrs. Hider picked cases of some Sahrawi prisoners without even mentioning the crimes committed by those people. She did not even talk about the freedom that our brothers and sisters are living in southern provinces of the kingdom. Whereas our Moroccan brothers and sisters in the prison camp in Tindouf cannot even move within the camp freely. They are watched 24\ 7 by snipers of the Polisario guerillas from one side and by Algerian military from the  Other. The shocking moment for our MACDO members was at the end of the event when our members were trying to talk to the RFK executive director to express our disagreement with this decision. Many supporters of Mrs. Hider tried to block MACDO's president and vice president from talking to the director. They pushed MACDO's president many times but he kept ignoring them. One of those supporters came and asked if we were journalists. Some of them started insulting us. We ignored them. One of her supporters went and told the organizers that we were not registered to attend. Suddenly a policeman approached us and asked if we were registered to attend the event. The vice president answered “Yes Sir.” He also asked us if there was a problem. The vice president answered again “no Sir, unless someone is trying to create one which we don't need.” We kept moving, followed by the policeman, towards Mrs. Lynn Delaney who was, again, blocked by members of the Polisario.   We finally managed to approach her. She asked the president if we wanted to take a picture. His answer was “No Ma'am, we would like to talk to you for a few minutes.” She looked at the vice president and said, “Did you make it okay?”His answer, “Yes Ma'am, thanks. But I would like to let you know, Director, that our Moroccan American community disagreed with this decision, especially since we all know that this Award is meant for peace, not for violence for which this woman is advocating.” Her answer was that some people need to be independent. The vice president replied, “You cannot divide our country, Ma'am.” She was quick to end the discussion by thanking us for attending the event, and we returned the thanks.  We left the event really bothered by the absence of the embassy staff. We were wondering if they don't want to understand that this is hurting our country’s sovereignty. By not bothering to attend, they seem not to be caring about our country . Where was Mr. Ambassador!!! This was his time to show us his leadership .We were also asking ourselves: Where were those associations that Mr. Ambassador has been supporting? They show up only to party. It is clear to all of us now that our embassy staff and their entourage have no credibility with our community whatsoever. Therefore, we urge our community in the United States to start thinking seriously of creating a credible council that consists of honorable people, not only to represent us, but also to defend our country, which is a good friend of the United States of America.