Four men and a woman were arrested early this morning in Strabane, Co Tyrone, in connection with the intimidation of Northern Ireland policing board members.
They are being questioned about a series of arson attacks and death threats against members of the 26 District Policing Boards.
Dissident republicans have been blamed for the bulk of the threats and attacks but police have also accused members of the Provisional IRA of being responsible for the threats against policing board members in Cookstown, Co Tyrone.
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The Minister for Foreign Affairs, Mr Cowen, condemned the spate of intimidation.
"There is no context, no circumstance in which it is justifiable," he said.
"These are people in communities who are out there trying to bring about the necessary changes and provide for a better society and a better policed society in Northern Ireland," he added.
SDLP leader Mr Mark Durkan, who met PSNI Chief Constable Hugh Orde today along with other party members, called for unionists, nationalists and republicans to be forthright in their condemnation. He also called on Sinn Féin to make a statement categorically denying they were involved in the threats.
"If people are not convinced by Sinn Féin, it may be that people are looking at what has been said by that party in the past.
"People are looking at Mitchel McLaughlin refusing to condemn an attempt on a recruit's life in Ballymena, they are looking at Gerry Adams' remarks that PSNI officers should be ostracised like members of the RUC, and various councillors' threats that DPP members better check under their cars or could have their names on posters hanging from lamposts.
"If people have a problem with Sinn Féin's condemnation, I think it might be more convincing if there was a clear definitive statement from the IRA itself."
Mr Orde pledged to crack down on those responsible. "We are determined to get to the bottom of this and identify thepeople who are breaking the law and terrifying people who are determined to work with us."
Sinn Féin's Mr Martin McGuinness yesterday denied mainstream republicans were involved in threatening Catholic members of the boards which liaise with local police chiefs on policing issues affecting their community.
Speaking after an arson attack on the car of one policing board member in Derry and just hours before the latest threat to Mr Denis Bradley, the Deputy Chairman of the Northern Ireland Policing Board, the Mid Ulster MP said there could be "no justification whatsoever for these attacks.
"I think those responsible need to recognise how politically isolated they are," he said. "They need to understand that what they are doing is totally at variance with where the broad nationalist and republican opinion on the Island of Ireland is."
Earlier this week Strabane District Policing Partnership member Mr Arthur McGarrigle saw his car set alight outside the school where he teaches. Two members of District Policing Partnerships in Cookstown and Fermanagh have stood down because of threats over the past week.