Kampala — MPs on the parliamentary committee on natural resources have summoned the Attorney General, Francis Ayume (left), and Solicitor General Tibaruha Busingye to present the Government's position on the treaties which regulate the use of the Nile waters.

The summons came after the legal assistant to the Attorney General, Christopher Gashirabake, presented to the committee a letter dated June 4, 2003, signed by Francis Ayume, addressed to the environment state minister Jeje Odongo, asking him to advise MPs to move cautiously when discussing regional and global rules of law, lest they provoke international acrimony.

"I advise that in your reply, you urge MPs to stay any call to unilaterally abrogate the agreements in issue while the concerns raised in the motion are conclusively resolved within the framework of the draft Nile River Basin Cooperative Agreement," the letter says in part. The MPs were discussing Amon Muzoora's motion seeking a pronouncement that Uganda is not bound by pre-colonial agreements.