The time has come for Sinn Fein to trust and support the Police Service in Northern Ireland because its officers protected nationalist communities from recent loyalist rioting, it was claimed today.
The Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern called on republicans to join the PSNI force and take their rightful place on local policing boards.
In the wake of today's unionist withdrawal from the Belfast District Policing Partnership over the PSNI's handling of recent rioting, Mr Ahern urged all political representatives to maintain their full support for policing structures.
"A key remaining step to complete the policing project is for Sinn Fein to support the new policing arrangements," Mr Ahern told the National Committee on American Foreign Policy in New York today.
Referring to recent loyalist rioting in Belfast, he added: "The PSNI stood squarely between nationalist communities and loyalist attack last weekend.
"Sinn Fein now have a duty to join with the SDLP in making the PSNI accountable to nationalists communities through the Policing Board and to press for the full implementation of Patten Report.
"I would also strongly urge unionists leaders to maintain their full support for the structures of policing."
Referring to recent loyalist rioting and attacks on Catholic property, Mr Ahern also warned that there can be no place for sectarianism in modern Ireland.
"In Antrim, Catholic families living in small communities have been attacked and intimidated for no other reason than that they are Catholic," the he said.
"Families like yours or mine who fear the arrival of every night, of every noise outside and of every knock on the door. There can be no place for sectarianism in Ireland in the 21st century."
Mr Ahern, who was in New York for the UN Global Summit, also called on all political and community leaders, particularly those from within the unionist community, to use their influence to bring an end to recent paramilitary and criminal activity.