The leader of the United Kingdom Unionist Party, Mr Robert McCartney, has called on all pro-union parties to unite in opposition to the Patten recommendations and save the RUC.
"If the major pro-union parties seek party advantage and engage in charge and counter-charge, violent nationalism will rejoice, the government will press ahead and the RUC will be sacrificed in the process," Mr McCartney told a pro-RUC rally in Limavady, Co Derry, last night.
He said he was concerned that implementation of the Patten recommendations would not only lead to a breakdown in RUC morale but to an increase in community tensions.
"I believe the recommendations of the Patten Commission, if accepted in their entirety, will destroy the morale of the police in their battle with criminals and terrorists. It will further divide the two communities and will render the effective maintenance of law and order in Northern Ireland well nigh impossible," he added.
Mr McCartney urged all parties, including those who by signing the Belfast Agreement had contributed to the setting-up of the commission, to unite in opposition to the recommendations.
"It matters less that some may have mistakenly contributed to the establishment of the Patten Commission than that they can now join with others in the present campaign for the rejection of that commission's report," he said. The report could not be put into operation without widespread cross-community support.
"The remit in the Belfast Agreement requires proposals designed to ensure that policing arrangements are such that Northern Ireland has a police service that can enjoy widespread support from the community as a whole.
"The purpose of the entire campaign should therefore be to demonstrate in the clearest possible way that the reforms offered by the Patten report have had no possibility whatever of receiving such support", he said. On the contrary, they would be strenuously rejected by the overwhelming majority of those who believed in democracy and the rule of law.