In a statement issued on October 14, the authorities in Eritrea have embarked on a map-making and guessing exercise in a campaign designed to make them appear transparent and open to international judgment while masking the aggression they committed on 12 May 1998 by occupying Ethiopian territories in the Badme (Yirga) area, as well as the town of Zalambessa and its environs.

They may estimate that the gullible will be impressed and that the well-meaning will be confused but to Ethiopians and all those following the crisis closely, the statement is just the latest packaged public relations product from Asmara that, true to form, is an exercise of camouflage to the withdrwal from the occupied territories.

The Eritrean authorities are now calling for verification "by independent investigation" of the border between the two countries. The lesson in geography that the statement attempts to get across to its readers is presented as if the conflict between the two countries exists in the air, and that through a somewhat academic exercise carried out through the media, the truth will be known. What Eritrea hopes to achieve by launching a new series of debates on this or that map, or this or that treaty is hard to understand. If Asmara is saying that Ethiopia has drawn a new map and has changed its positions on the issues, this is definitely not the case. And neither should Eritrea assume that it is the only repository of knowledge on treaties, maps and territories that were the subject of agreements made by others.

Needless to say, there will come a time, hopefully soon, when the matters related to the border and the demarcation work will be undertaken. The Eritrean authorities will have all the possibilities available to them to convince us and the rest of the world that their claims are well founded. Whether they are right, or dreadfully wrong __ as was recently demonstrated in the Hanish case __ will remain to be seen __ following a peaceful and legal process.

But what Eritrea needs to realize is that we are not just there yet. We have an aggression to address. We cannot wish it away and pretend it didn't happen. How can Ethiopia, and the rest of the world for that matter, be expected to ignore that in the wake of ongoing friendly negotiations of the bilateral border commission, three mechanized Eritrean brigades roared across the border causing casualties, dislocating nearly 200,000 people and remain in place in Ethiopian territory totally oblivious to calls made by all from near and far that they withdraw?

Are we expected to forget that Eritrea was called upon by the facilitators, by the OAU and implicitly by the United Nations Security Council to withdraw its troops to positions they occupied prior to May 6, 1998?

Is Ethiopia, and the OAU for that matter, expected to pretend that the OAU Mission did not take place; that it did not examine all the evidence available to it and that it unequivocally affirmed that the Badme area had been under Ethiopian administration prior to May 12?

Are we to believe that Eritrea was forced to attack Ethiopia in early May because that talks had broken down or because they had reached an impasse __ when it is an established fact that both sides had agreed not only to meet in two months time but to go to the area in the meantime and examine the complaints regarding the events of May 6?

Rather than opening new debates on maps and treaties why, if Eritrea is confident that it has the evidence, does it not implement the OAU Heads of State decision of Ouagadougou. After all if Eritrea had been right all along, according to the US/Rwanda plan, it would have been able to take possession of the territories it claimed 180 days later when demarcation was completed __ by December 31, 1998. But then maybe the fear in Asmara is that history and evidence will prove them wrong __ as they did in the Hanish case. That is probably why the cart has been placed before the horse.

We in Ethiopia challenge Eritrea to win its case legally and peacefully __ not with tanks and troops. We are not the party that has shown the world that it believes in changing border by force. If Eritrea believes it is right, let it not defy the world. Let it implement the decisions of the OAU and then put its arguments to the real test. That is what Ethiopia, the "independent inspectors" and the world are waiting for.