Unionists and some victims' groups have warned the Eames-Bradley group examining means of dealing with the Troubles legacy not to consider an amnesty for former paramilitaries.
They further warned the consultative group, currently consulting the public and due to present its proposals next summer, not to suggest that the 35-year conflict was a "war".
No proposals regarding an amnesty or a reference to any war have been tabled by the Eames-Bradley group. However it is known all ideas are being considered by the eight-member consultative group and nothing is being ruled out at this stage.
Its first public meeting in Belfast on Monday resonated with heated contributions warning the group not to proceed in the face of opposition from various victims and survivors groups.
North Antrim DUP Assembly member Mervyn Storey said the idea was an "absolute obscenity", while DUP chief whip Lord Maurice Morrow accused the consultative group of "abandoning all moral and ethical beliefs".An amnesty was also denounced by Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey who vowed to oppose any move to introduce one.
Loyalist victims campaigner Willie Frazer said declaring an amnesty would cause fresh injustice and hurt for the relatives of those killed by paramilitaries. Referring to the IRA campaign and the loyalist response, he said: "If there was a war it justifies the murder of our loved ones. It was not a war, it was a terrorist campaign."
Independent unionist MEP Jim Allister said the Eames-Bradley consultative group ought not to consider anything approaching an amnesty.
"We've had the due process of the law emasculated enough by the early prisoner releases of the Belfast Agreement, without adding further insult. If this is how the Eames-Bradley commission is thinking, then it should be wound up immediately."
PSNI chief constable Sir Hugh Orde insisted yesterday he was keeping an open mind on the matter of the legacy of the Troubles. He said it was right to consider what he called a "spectrum of opportunities" including a "historical inquiries team - which I think is important and making a difference - right through to that very difficult debate about amnesties, statutes of limitations and pardons".
Declining to comment on whether the Troubles should be described as a war Sir Hugh instead warned that protracted efforts to examine the past were a serious drain on current policing resources. "My real experts in criminal investigation and intelligence are now spending 99 per cent of their time servicing inquiries into matters that went back five, 10, 15, 20 years," he said.
"I think that is a relevant point I would like to make because it impacts on confidence in policing," he added.
"At some stage we will reach the tipping point, I fear, where I will have to make a very hard decision about how much more I can put into looking backwards."
Alliance Party Assembly member Stephen Farry said: "Other mechanisms can be created to encourage paramilitaries to come forward without granting their wish for a rewrite of history." SDLP leader Mark Durkan warned that any future proposals from the Eames-Bradley group should be "victim-centred" and not about fixing things for the "victim-makers".