Sinn Féin and the DUP have criticised the PSNI chief constable Mr Hugh Orde after he reiterated that his force cannot cope with the demand to deal with outstanding murder cases of the 30-year-old Northern conflict.
Half or 1,800 murders from the 3,600 killings of the Troubles remain unsolved and Mr Orde repeated yesterday that some form of truth and reconciliation forum should deal with them.
He has already come under criticism from politicians and victims' groups for asserting that his officers should be allowed to concentrate on current cases and that some other mechanism should be established to deal with past killings. But he told the Guardian newspaper that the workload of old cases was putting fierce pressure on the PSNI. He said he may have to refuse requests from families for previous murders to be investigated.
"Tension is building to such a point that I think we are reaching a crisis . . . There is a growing demand for reinvestigation. The harsh reality is that I am not funded to reinvestigate history. I am funded to police the present. We have to come up with some form of closure that may not include a judicial process".
The Sinn Féin spokeswoman on human rights issues Ms Caitriona Ruane accused Mr Orde of "deliberately and very cynically entering a debate around truth recovery and inquiries in a bid to protect senior members of the PSNI from having their past role within the RUC investigated.
"He knows that many of these individuals are human rights abusers and were centrally involved in organising a campaign of genocide against the nationalist population."
The DUP MP for Lagan Valley, Mr Jeffrey Donaldson, said his party would oppose the notion of a truth commission and any amnesty for paramilitaries. He did not accept Mr Orde's comments that he could not investigate murders going back 30 years and said new techniques such as DNA could help to apprehend those responsible for murder.
