Republicans must do more to end the suffering of families whose loved ones mysteriously vanished during Northern Ireland's Troubles, the SDLP said today.
SDLP Assembly member Dominic Bradley said it was not good enough for Sinn Féin and the Irish Republican Socialist Party to simply say the abduction, murder and secret burials of people were wrong.
He called on the Provisional IRA and the Irish National Liberation Army to do more to end the suffering of families of the "disappeared".
SDLP Assembly member Dominic Bradley
"No one can underestimate the torment these families and all the families of the disappeared have had to endure. No organisation has the right to deny any family a proper Christian burial for their loved one, Mr Bradley said.
"Paramilitaries took their lives, they took their bodies and now they must not continue to take away the right for Christian burials for the disappeared. It is not enough for Sinn Féin or the IRSP to say that this was wrong - they have to do what is necessary to put right their wrongs."
Following a meeting with the families of Crossmaglen man Charlie Armstrong (57), Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams appealed for anyone with information on the father-of-five's disappearance in 1981 and that of Gerard Evans, who vanished in 1979, to be passed onto him.
The IRA has insisted it had no involvement in the disappearance of both men. Mr Armstrong was last seen in August 1981 leaving his home to collect a pensioner to take her to Mass.
Mr Evans was last seen alive in Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, in March 1979 trying to hitch a lift home to south Armagh.
Five bodies of people the IRA has admitted kidnapping, murdering and secretly buried have yet to be returned to their families.
They are 17-year-old Columba McVeigh from Donaghmore in Co Tyrone; Kevin Mckee and Seamus Wright, who were both 25, from Andersonstown; Danny McIlhone from West Belfast; and 24-year-old Brendan Megraw from Twinbrook.
Four bodies have already been recovered.
However no organisation has claimed they had a role in the disappearance of former Irish Republican Socialist Party activist Seamus Ruddy in France in May 1985 and SAS Captain Robert Nairac in south Armagh in May 1977.
PA