The Sinn Féin chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, has warned that attempts to capture republican paramilitaries on the run could jeopardise the entire peace process.
Mr McLaughlin made the remark during an Assembly debate on an Alliance Party motion condemning an amnesty for paramilitary suspects on the run.
The motion, which called on the British government to insist that suspects, if they wished to return to Northern Ireland, had to acknowledge their guilt in court before being released on licence, failed, as did three amendments.
The Sinn Féin chairman said the deal agreed between his party and the British government at Weston Park last summer was in the spirit of the Belfast Agreement.
"Any such pursuit of these individuals is absolutely fraught with dangers for the peace process itself," he added.
The SDLP accused Sinn Féin of "rank hypocrisy" in seeking to secure freedom for republican suspects while the Provisional IRA still continued to exile people from Northern Ireland.
Describing the Weston Park agreement as a "self-serving deal to satisfy [Sinn Féin's\] internal political needs", SDLP MLA Mr Alban Maginness, added: "If paramilitaries seek amnesty for themselves, surely it is common justice to grant an amnesty to those that paramilitaries have expelled."
Tabling the original motion, the Alliance deputy leader, Ms Eileen Bell, said the only way to make serious progress towards peace was to address the issue of exiles.
"It would be absolutely incredible if the \ government proceeded with an amnesty for paramilitaries before first ensuring that those selfsame paramilitaries lift the threats against those they have exiled."
Mr Ian Paisley jnr, blaming Mr David Trimble for negotiating the deal, said nobody should be given a "get out of jail free card".
In reply, Mr Trimble accused the DUP of "advancing their political careers through distortion and deceit".