The chairman of the Northern Ireland Police Federation has claimed that Sinn Fein has co-ordinated "an evil conspiracy" to vilify the RUC over the past year.
Mr Les Rodgers was addressing 170 police officers from the North, Britain and the Republic at his organisation's annual conference in Newcastle, Co Down, yesterday. He received a standing ovation. The Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan, and the Ulster Unionist MP, Mr Ken Maginnis, were present.
Condemning the alleged Sinn Fein conspiracy, he said: "Their sole purpose is to destroy the credibility of this force by ensuring we have no future. I cannot believe their campaign can be allowed to succeed."
He claimed the campaigners aimed to influence the independent commission on policing, chaired by the former Hong Kong governor, Mr Chris Patten.
"Who are our critics?" Mr Rodgers asked. "Loyalist and republican groups whose expertise in policing is documented each night in our hospitals with an unprecedented history of brutality. Even the plight of the families of the disappeared is hijacked as a human rights issue by Sinn Fein. Are we all expected to forget who murdered them in the first place?"
He said Sinn Fein's plan to demonise the RUC was being "wittingly and unwittingly assisted by others. It is a campaign bolstered by the uninformed, biased pronouncements of many politicians, nationalist and British, Irish and Irish-American . . .
Mr Rodgers said that the paramilitaries had killed 302 officers and injured 8,000 during the Troubles. He said the RUC had been accused of collusion in civilian murders, but there was no evidence of this.
He demanded the full support of the British government and the public as the marching season approached. "We expect and we demand strong, unambiguous support from government and the community.
"I would like to say names and slurs cannot hurt us, but we are ordinary people required to do an extraordinary job. Next month the confrontation at Drumcree may well intensify. If we are not getting that vital backing, we can be down there feeling like cannon fodder."
Mr Rodgers said the RUC was willing to accept change and had put forward 44 points to the Patten Commission, including suggestions on how to encourage more Catholics and women into the force. He said the police had already instigated change regarding the oath of allegiance and flying the Union flag, and would accept a change of uniform.
Dr Mowlam told the conference that while the RUC would not be disbanded there must be change which "builds on the professionalism of the RUC and yet accepts the need for a different style of policing in a changed society".
She continued: "I hear calls for disbandment of the RUC and I also hear those who are saying there must be no change. These are very narrow views, and the Prime Minister and I have made it clear that neither of these extreme options is possible. Change is inevitable to face the challenges of the future, a view I know many of you will accept."
Dr Mowlam praised the RUC's work and acknowledged the difficulties it faced, particularly over Drumcree. "Year after year you have been caught like the meat in a sandwich between two opposing sides," she said.
Mr Alex Attwood of the SDLP described Mr Rodgers's remarks as "typically hysterical in tone and content". A Sinn Fein assembly member, Ms Bairbre de Brun, accused the Police Federation of fighting "a rearguard action" against the Belfast Agreement.