Dr. Mohamed Ibn Chambas
Executive Secretary/ECOWAS
Asokro District, PMB 401
Abuja, Nigeria

Dr. Chambas:

In a VOA interview on April 4, you announced the imposition of travel restrictions on the group fighting to dispose Liberia and Africa of Taylor, the worst dictator of the 21st century. You also announced ECOWAS' unequivocal support for Taylor's regime whom you described as a democratically-elected government.

All that sounds good to me. But Mr. Secretary, what have you done to stop Taylor from killing thousands of Liberians and Sierra Leoneans since the so-called "Democratic elections" of July 1997?

Have you now teamed up with Obasanjo to uphold this blood-thirsty regime at the perils of the Liberian people? You guys couldn't be more wrong, because the fight for justice and genuine democracy in Liberia will continue despite ECOWAS' conspiracy to deny us our civic responsibility.

Taylor has rendered his regime illegitimate by endangering the lives, safety and properties of the Liberian people and moreover creating a perfect climate of fear and instability in Liberia. He has violated every tenet of the Liberian Constitution. The socio-political and economic climate under Taylor is a far cry from the era of Samuel Doe, a half-educated army sergeant-turned politician, whose regime he sank in 1990. Years gone by, Liberia was the oasis of peace in a volatile continent beset with conflicts and indeed a refuge for Africans from all walks of life. Now, it is the bastion of mercenaries, terrorists and economic vampires.

By explicitly supporting such a despotic regime, ECOWAS has committed monumental injustice to the thousands of Sierra Leonean children, women and men without limbs, eyes or ears, not to mention those who were sent to their early graves by Taylor's killing machine. ECOWAS has also betrayed the government and people of Guinea whose territories have been frequently attacked and its inhabitants hacked to death by Taylor's NPFL bandits ever since the beginning of the Liberian madness in 1989/90. Let us remember that it was Guinea that hosted and perhaps continue to host the largest number of Liberian refugees. Guinea was also one of the few African countries who, without international support, sent its soldiers to die just to bring peace to Liberia. Taylor rewarded them with blood, mayhem and carnage.

Dr. Chambas, Liberia should be just like Ghana with a truly democratically elected president governing by consensus not coercion. I as a Liberian categorically condemn you and ECOWAS for a cowardly overture to an internationally-recognized murderer. The majority of Liberians at home and abroad should, and rightfully so, be disappointed at your ineffectiveness to resolve the Liberian problem.

Instead of resolving problem, I believe the Obassanjo-Chambas-Taylor alliance will create more deaths and destruction in Liberia.

All hail, Liberia hail, This Great Land of Liberty.

With God above our rights to prove, we shall overall prevail.

Mohamed A. Sherif
A Displaced Liberian