Sinn Féin today rejected proposed legislation in the North to provide an amnesty for the so called on-the-runs.
Party vice president Pat Doherty, MP for West Tyrone, urged Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain to withdraw the legislation during a meeting at Stormont.
Mr Doherty led a delegation of party members and victims' groups to meet Mr Hain to give their views on the Northern Ireland (Offences) Bill which is currently going through Parliament.
He said that the legislation was "so far removed" from an agreement made during talks with the British government at Weston Park in 2001 that "we are now calling for it to be rejected and we are withdrawing from anything to do with it".
Mr Doherty revealed that they would also be advising republicans on the run not to seek registration under the legislation should it go through.
Up to 150 so-called 'on the runs' including terrorist killers will be free to return home without fear of being charged or imprisoned if the legislation is passed.
Sinn Féin initially welcomed it when it was published by the British government but now oppose on the grounds it will not only give an amnesty to IRA members but also to any soldiers or police officers who committed murder during 30 years of violence.
Urging the British government to scrap the legislation and stick to what was agreed, he said: "There are no British ground forces on the run.
"It was sleight of hand and inexcusable to bring that aspect into the legislation. It was not agreed at Weston Park. And it is not acceptable and needs to be rejected."
Mr Doherty said Sinn Féin had been in contact with many of those on the run before making the decision to reject the legislation.
Peter Robinson, deputy leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said there was now no reason for the British government to proceed with the "obnoxious and obscene" on-the-runs bill.
Mr Robinson said the British government had spent the last months "using every excuse that this most vile of bills must become law as the result of its dirty and sordid deal with Sinn Fein/IRA at Weston Park in 2001 and Hillsborough in 2003."
During the committee stage the British government had been so afraid to accept amendments to the bill for fear of upsetting the IRA Army Council, he said.
The DUP had led the opposition to the bill, had built a coalition opposed to it, won the argument and was now beginning to see the possibility of halting the measures from reaching the statute book, said Mr Robinson.
"There is now no excuse to pursue a bill that is utterly unacceptable to all right-thinking people in Northern Ireland.
Mark Thompson, from Relatives for Justice, said from the time the Bill had been published it was clear the beneficiary was the British state despite an attempt to dress it up as 'On The Run' legislation.
It is the "save the British government, save the RUC, save the death squads Bill".
Meanwhile John Kelly, of the Bloody Sunday families branded the legislation "diabolical" and told Mr Hain to scrap it.
During a busy afternoon Mr Hain also received a delegation headed by Mark Durkan, MP, leader of the SDLP.
Mr Durkan also took various victims of alleged violence to the meeting and he too called for the legislation to be scrapped.
Mr Durkan said: "We are deeply worried and deeply aggrieved by this Bill and it must be scrapped."