Families of the Disappeared - relatives of those abducted, killed and secretly buried by republican paramilitaries - have voiced their disappointment at the British government's £10,000 sterling compensation offer.
The offer was described as "an insult" by Ms Helen McKendry, whose mother, Mrs Jean McConville, was kidnapped and killed by the IRA in 1972. Ms McKendry, who was 15 when her mother disappeared, said she was "very angry" and described the offer as disgraceful.
"There are nine of us left so this money will be split between all of us. Is £1,000 enough to compensate for a mother's life?" Her husband, Seamus, said he was particularly angry that the family had to find out about the compensation offer from the media.
Ms Margaret McKinney, whose son Brian's body was recovered after 21 years in bogland in Co Monaghan last year, said she felt "sickened" by the offer.
The Alliance Party spokeswoman on equality, Ms Eileen Bell, yesterday described the compensation offer as "derisory". Meanwhile, the North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, has written to the Northern Secretary, Mr Peter Mandelson, expressing his disappointment at several of the British government's proposals for victims' compensation.
Mr Trimble said the proposals would "not command widespread public support" nor did they appear to be "consistent with the government's stated commitment to the interests of victims".
Victims' group Relatives for Justice has called on Mr Mandelson to address the pain and suffering caused by actions of the security forces. It said they felt like the "forgotten victims of the Troubles".
Surrounded by pictures of their loved ones and supported by other groups, among them the Pat Finucane Centre, the Bloody Sunday Trust, Campaign Against Plastic Bullets and Cunamh, Relatives for Justice said their feelings had been ignored for too long.
"When the IRA or loyalists, to some extent, kill, it's murder. When the security forces kill, it's somehow a mistake. That's the difference and that's what hurts, that somehow what has happened to us counts for less," its spokesman, Mr Mark Thompson, said.