Nationalist recruits to the new police service must expect the same treatment from republicans currently accorded to the RUC, the Sinn Fein president has said.
Mr Gerry Adams would not comment on whether his party planned to actively discourage nationalists from joining up, saying he "resented" the question. Instead, he stressed that it would be too early for members of the republican community to do so.
One of the SDLP's three nominees to the Policing Board, Mr Alex Attwood, called on Sinn Fein to "come clean" on how they intended to stop young nationalists joining the new service.
"Is Gerry Adams saying that in discouraging young people to join the police service he and his colleagues will act like the loyalists in Ardoyne who harass, intimidate and discourage people who exercise their free choice to go to school? "Will they do the same to those who exercise their free choice to join the police? If Gerry Adams does not confirm that any citizen has the full right to exercise their choice of career, free from any and all threat or abuse, then people will draw their own conclusions about what is meant by not encouraging people to join."
Mr Adams said: "My position is very clear. I want to see republicans and nationalists part of a new police service and I will actively encourage people to be a part of that when we have a new beginning to policing."
He said Sinn Fein would not only nominate to the Policing Board but do everything in its power to instil confidence in the new service whenever it met republican criteria for a truly impartial and accountable police force. "Anybody interested in a new beginning to policing should not act or be a part of this police service. I think they [nationalist recruits] will be accorded exactly the same treatment the republican movement accorded to the RUC. No more, no less."
He would not be drawn on whether his party planned to go through with measures outlined in an internal memo which was inadvertently faxed to a Belfast newsroom several weeks ago. In the memo party officers appeared to be considering a campaign aimed at dissuading young nationalists in GAA clubs and secondary schools from joining the service.
The British government would take great succour from the decisions of both the SDLP and unionist parties to nominate members for the Policing Board, the Sinn Fein president said. In his party's assessment, rather than helping the situation these decisions had created a "mess" which would prevent and frustrate the goal of decent civic policing.
Unionists would use their positions on the board to resist any changes to the existing policing structures, Mr Adams insisted. Under current circumstances nationalists should, therefore, neither join the service nor co-operate with it.
"What is required is a new policing service - not one with a Union flag flying above the station, not one still containing human rights abuses, not one which will avoid investigations of misconduct, not one which is armed with plastic bullets. I think the SDLP has made a mistake."