Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness today sought to play down the threat to the peace process from recent dissident republican violence, including the murder of two British soldiers and a PSNI officer.
The Continuity IRA said it shot dead PC Stephen Carroll on March 9th, while the Real IRA claimed responsibility for the killing of two British soldiers on March 7th.
Mr McGuinness, who described those who carried out the attacks as "traitors", said the united response from political leaders of the two communities had shown the strength of the peace process.
"If anything the activities of last week and our response to it has actually strengthened that process," the Deputy First Minister said in New York after a news conference with New York State officials who announced a $30 million investment by the state pension system in a private equity fund for Northern Ireland.
"We have to keep all of this in perspective," he said of the killings, describing the Real and Continuity IRA as "tiny microgroups with absolutely no support in the community."
Northern Ireland's police chief, Hugh Orde, said yesterday members of dissident groups numbered about 300, describing them as "disrupted, infiltrated and disorganised."
Mr McGuinness said: "Even within the 300, the number of people who would lift a gun or plant a bomb are very, very tiny, in my view, so we have to see it in perspective."
"Obviously the incident in which the soldiers were killed and the policeman was killed represents a new challenge for all of us, but people have a clear choice to make - it's either choose mayhem or the peace process," he said.
"These dissidents who say that they're about bringing about the reunification of Ireland will never reunite Ireland in a million years with the type of approach they're adopting at the moment," he added.
Mr McGuinness said the $30 million investment by the New York State public pension fund would help support the peace process by promoting economic equality.
US secretary of state Hillary Clinton, who is expected to meet Mr McGuinness tomorrow, praised the united response of leaders in Northern Ireland as well as Britain and Ireland, saying the peace process was of "great personal concern" to her.
"In recent days, a handful of rejectionists have tried to drag the people of Northern Ireland back into a full cycle of violence and retaliation," she said at a joint news conference with Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin in Washington.
"We will not let criminals destroy the gains that have been achieved through great courage and sacrifice."