Proposals to deal with the legacy of the Northern Ireland Troubles have been rejected by DUP leader Peter Robinson.
The unionist leader published a 12-page response to the so-called Eames-Bradley report which proposed a commission to examine unsolved murders, together with attempts to study the reasons for the conflict.
Mr Robinson reserved his sharpest criticism for the proposal to pay all bereaved families a £12,000 recognition payment claiming it drew an equivalence between paramilitaries and their victims.
The report's authors, former Church of Ireland Primate Lord Eames and former Northern Ireland Policing Board vice chair Denis Bradley, have said their proposals were rooted in the current legal definition of victims which the Stormont government adheres to, but Mr Robinson attacked their plans as a "moral collapse".
The DUP leader was responding to a consultation process launched by Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward, who has already ruled out the payment proposal.
But Mr Robinson was critical of the entire basis of the report and said he feared the proposed attempt to examine the causes of the conflict risked providing a rationale for terrorist violence.
"Unlike Lord Eames and Mr Bradley, I do not accept that it can be left to individuals subjectively to decide whether or not their illegal actions were justified," he said.
"To do so is surely also to accept the personal defence of the Nazi death camp guard.
"This is the appalling vista opened-up by Eames-Bradley with the complete moral collapse betrayed in their proposals for Reconciliation, Truth and Forgiveness."
Mr Robinson quoted the Eames-Bradley report as identifying a need for Northern Ireland's divided communities to recognise there was wrong on both sides.
The report cited the impact of paramilitary violence, but it also recorded concerns over collusion between state forces and loyalist killers.
The DUP leader said: "Mutual forgiveness indeed: law abiding citizens in Northern Ireland who took no part in The Troubles will be horrified to learn that under the terms of this madcap scheme they will be expected not only to forgive those who engaged in the criminal insurrection, but also to seek their forgiveness in turn.
Mr Robinson said his party would seek to change the legal definition of a victim.
He added: "As for this report, we will resist it every step of the way and warn the Secretary of State not to attempt to proceed with implementing it."
© Press Association