Questions about who authorised "British death squads" in Northern Ireland during the troubles should be answered, as should questions about paramilitary killings, the SDLP said yesterday.
The SDLP is shortly to publish its proposals on mechanisms to acknowledge the past.
SDLP chairman Alex Attwood told the Parnell Summer School that these proposals should be "victim-centred and truth-telling".
Mr Attwood emphasised that mechanisms needed to address the past equally.
"Questions of who authorised British death squads should be answered, and equally the questions of who authorised the paramilitary killings should be answered. If the truth of the state's human rights abuses is to be known, the human rights abuses of the paramilitaries should be known," he said.
Mr Attwood pointed out that the truth could not be partial, but must be inclusive.
He also dealt with the issue of policing in his summer school address yesterday.
According to Mr Attwood, Sinn Féin are running out of reasons and are now clinging on to excuses not to join the Policing Board.
"Policing challenges remain but changes to policing are irreversible. Sinn Féin has abdicated their leadership on the issue of policing. There should be no further delay by them or doubt from them," Mr Attwood said.
On a broader political theme Mr Attwood said the reasons for elections had been well rehearsed.
He said democratic culture was being damaged and the Good Friday Agreement was being held to ransom by certain people in unionism.
Mr Attwood said the return of Prime Minister Tony Blair from his holidays must put Ireland back on his desk and put elections back on the agenda.
