A Republican ex-prisoners' group last night (Monday) stressed the importance of ongoing contact with Ulster Unionists who have published proposals on how best to deal with the past.
The Unionist Group issued a document entitled 'Drawing a line under the past', which as well as being sent to UUP leader Sir Reg Empey has been given to the British and Irish governments.
Twenty-four UUP members – many of them veterans of the party – put their name to the statement, which was released after gauging opinion from both communities.
Discussions were held with republican ex-prisoners' group Coiste na n-Iarchimi at Clonard Monastery in west Belfast, with members of the Official Republican Group, and the INLA's political wing the Irish Republican Socialist Party.
They also met loyalists from Belfast's Shankill Road, SDLP and Alliance Party representatives, and British and Irish ministers.
In its statement the Unionist Group touched on ongoing debate about a South African-style truth commission to deal with the past, stressing that any such mechanism "needs to be adapted to our particular circumstances".
"There are well-founded fears that this [a truth commission] could, like the Bloody Sunday inquiry, gather a mass of information at tremendous cost but shed limited light on the matter under investigation and bring little healing capacity," the group said.
"The agencies of the state would be expected to tell the whole truth but neither the British or Irish governments nor the IRA and loyalist paramilitaries or others are likely to do this.
"Yet if the perception was to be created that 'truth' was being fabricated or distorted for whatever purpose, more harm than good might result."
The group said facilities and support should be provided to encourage people's quests for truth, adding: "But any search for a singular agreed historical narrative will, we believe, prove illusory.
"The aim is to acknowledge, empathise and increase mutual understanding among participants but not necessarily to agree with people's narratives."
The unionists said while the presence of counsellors was desirable in such a process, most participants should be drawn from ordinary walks of life.
Any meetings should be also conducted in private, but the group added that "at some stage a common act" led by the queen and President Mary McAleese might be appropriate.
Mike Ritchie of Coiste na n-Iarchimi said: "We feel quite pleased they are able to publish the fact we met them and value their connection. They are their views, and we will study them.
"The discussions we would have would be to air areas of difference. They have been quite up for the building of that relationship."
Ulster Unionist assembly member Derek Hussey, the party's victims' spokesman, said he has yet to see the document published by his colleagues, whom he hopes to meet over the next few days.
"Any process has to be led by victims of terror which is my major area of concern," he said.
On the suggestion that President Mary McAleese and the queen participate in a "common act" as part of the process, he added: "It is very much down to the individual. There will be some who may be open to that process and some who may not."
