Republican assistance with the investigation into Robert McCartney murder will be the test of Sinn Fein's new support for policing in Northern Ireland, the victim's sister said tonight.
As detectives hunting the gang of IRA men blamed for stabbing the father of two outside a Belfast bar urged witnesses to break their silence, Catherine McCartney insisted nothing less than full co-operation would do.
She issued her challenge on the second anniversary of a killing which plunged the republican movement into crisis amid allegations that the murderers were being protected, and just days after Gerry Adams won overwhelming backing for his strategy of ending Sinn Fein opposition to the police service.
Ms McCartney said: "This is the litmus test for them. "They have no excuses. If it was purely a policing issue for Sinn Fein that has now been removed.
"Sinn Fein members (in the bar) refused to speak to police. They had a nonsense of talking to third parties like priests, but that was fruitless. Police are trained to take statements, not priests.
"I want Gerry Adams to say he will encourage everybody to come forward and say they will help with the investigation into Robert's murder.
"That will prove there was no culture of cover-up going on." Mr McCartney (33) was attacked with his friend Brendan Devine after a row inside Magennis' Bar on January 30th, 2005 spilled outside. He was beaten and knifed to death in a nearby street.