An independent truth commission including international experts should be considered to bring "healing" to victims of the Troubles, Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams said today.
Speaking during a meeting in West Belfast to highlight state collusion in murder, Mr Adams criticised arrangements for addressing the past and said any process should deal with all sufferers equally.
"Some of the groups are looking at an international independent truth commission, that is something which as a party we will also look at, but it has to be victim-centred and it has to be positive. It has to be part of a healing process," Mr Adams said.
One victim, Jim Clinton, whose wife Theresa was killed by loyalists over a decade ago in her south Belfast home, said: "We are entitled to know why and who ordered the killing of our loved ones. There's no back doors in this."
SDLP equality spokeswoman Dolores Kelly said there must not be a selective approach to dealing with the past.
"There is no place for any type of 'half truth commission' in the North, be that at the behest of the Government, the security forces, or by paramilitary groups and their political representatives on either side," she said.
Earlier this summer former Northern Ireland secretary Peter Hain announced an independent panel, including former Church of Ireland Archbishop Lord Robin Eames and former Catholic priest Denis Bradley, to debate ways of dealing with more than 3,000 unsolved murders.
Mr Adams, who was flanked by victims of alleged state sanctioned violence, questioned the freedom of the group to make candid findings.
"I have problems in relation to its remit, my strong suspicion in all of these issues is that it's a matter of trying to string this out and just a waste of time on the issue."
Republicans will gather on Sunday to mark the 26th anniversary of the hunger strikes.