The Orange Order is warning of trouble during the marching season because of conflicting interpretations of new legislation on the conditions governing parades.
The warning followed PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde’s insistence today that his officers will work with the Order and the Parades Commission to ensure the marching season passes off peacefully.
Mr Orde said the policing of marches - and protests against them - will be professional and impartial. "We are hoping for a season like last year, a largely peaceful marching season, where everyone worked together to achieve the objective, which was the right to march and the right to protest equally.
Mr Orde admitted his officers were faced with a demanding job. "We will deliver a professional and impartial police service to all the people that want to march and we will facilitate them as well as we possibly can in accordance with the determinations.
"We have a difficult job. The Parades Commission make the determinations, not the police service. My requirement is to police the determinations and that is what we will do.
An Orange Order spokesman however, expressed concern that trouble could flare if determinations by the Parades Commission based on new human rights obligations in the North appear unfair.
"Clearly, as in previous years, we hope the marching season will be peaceful," an Orange Order spokesman said.
"[But] that depends on how the PSNI and the Parades Commission continue to behave and interpret the law.
"We want a peaceful marching season but, the way the PSNI and the Parades Commission are behaving at the moment, I am very fearful of what is going to happen."