Greetings,

In a bid to get us off the ground faster and into the non-profit realm, we are in need of an early round of donations to open up bank accounts, a PO Box, and to purchase our first round of merchandise. After the first selection of merchandise is purchased, it will become a self-sustaining part of Operation Broken Silence that will allow us to purchase more and donate to the aid organizations we support.

Consider this an investment in Operation Broken Silence. Donations sent in now will be the founding base for our operations as well as what gets us off the ground. Only you can make this happen…

Please email us at mchackett@operationbrokensilence.org to learn how you can donate. We will accept any amount and will always be thankful for your donation, which will be the starting point for our work in the years to come.

Here’s a few other ways you can help:

Help us on Facebook!

Thanks in advance!

Onward,

Mark Christopher Hackett

mchackett@operationbrokensilence.org

Operation Broken Silence

“Where there is a will, there is a way…let’s go.”

The ENOUGH Project, founded by respected Africa expert and activist John Prendergast, recently published information about Operation Broken Silence’s “Emergency Church Action Plan Concerning Genocide,” which focuses on bringing churches into leadership positions in the battle against genocide in Africa.

To view the article about our work on ENOUGH’s website, please click here.

PHOTO: Africa Union peacekeepers man the entrance to the presidential palace February 23, 2009 in the embattled Somali capital of Mogadishu, where 11 Burundian AU soldiers were killed following a suicide bomb attack by hardline Islamist militia, Shebab. (1)

African heads of state and diplomats began today’s African Union (AU) summit with a serious look at the grim future of conflicts across Africa, a failing partnership with the International Criminal Court (ICC), and a growing movement to unite the continent together under increasingly dire circumstances caused from a variety of seemingly unsolvable issues ranging from genocide to global warming.

With the genocide in Darfur in a lull period of fighting, African leaders turned their eyes to the humanitarian catastrophe in Somalia, where the Western-backed government now controls a mere few blocks of Mogadishu as rebel soldiers continue to attack AU peacekeepers and government soldiers. The AU is expected to increase it’s troop contingents to Somalia in a bid to improve security and hopefully stave off the current future of the war-ravaged nation becoming a hotbed for international terrorist groups.

But the most shocking discussions revolved around the future of the AU with regards to cooperating with the International Criminal Court (ICC), which made history recently when judges issued an arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir for allegedly backing the war crimes and genocide being carried out by government-allied militias in Darfur. Bashir is the first sitting head of state to be indicted by an international court.

African officials said a surprise new draft, concerning the ICC, was circulated by Libya. The draft states that AU nations “shall not cooperate” with the ICC “for the arrest and surrender of African indicted personalities.” If the draft is signed into action, it could be a major blow to international justice and war crimes prosecutions. The ICC has been blamed for being “politically motivated” in the past and seems to put the major focus of it’s work into Africa. Many African leaders have complained that the ICC aims only at those in high positions of authority throughout the continent. 

Libya once again led the push for the creation of the “United States of Africa,” which would eventually bring all African nations under the control of a single federal government. African leaders are due to consider a decision to change the AU executive bodies from a “Commission” into an “Authority,” which would give the African body greater say in conflict resolution, peacekeeping deployments, and the acceptance or rejection of coup attempts, of which the continent has been rocked by several over the past year.

The AU delegates also expressed concern of the growing threat of violence in Sudan, Niger, and Zimbabwe.

Want to learn more about the African Union? Please click here.

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(1) Photo courtesy of DayLife.

Visit your local Starbucks and purchase a pound of the (RED) coffee, the From Africa to Africa blend. A portion of the proceeds will go to the Global Fund to help battle the AIDS epidemic in Africa!