The Sinn Fein chairman, Mr Mitchel McLaughlin, has urged anyone with information about the whereabouts of people who went missing during the violence in Northern Ireland to disclose it "as a matter of urgency".
Mr McLaughlin issued the appeal yesterday in response to an impassioned plea by the co-chairman of the Victims Commission, Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, for paramilitary organisations to "come clean" and identify the secret burial sites of people, known as "the disappeared", whom they abducted and killed.
The IRA is believed to have been involved in most of the abductions.
In a report into the needs of the victims of violence, We Will Remember Them, which was published in May, Sir Kenneth said the locations of where the disappeared are buried should be disclosed. Yesterday he reiterated his appeal.
Sir Kenneth said the identification of the bodies would be seen as a confidence-building measure at a time of great difficulty for the victims of violence and would boost the peace process.
When compiling his report, Sir Kenneth said, he was particularly struck by the grief expressed by families of the disappeared, whose tale was "all the more poignant as they had no grave for their loved one".
"I think it is awful that there continued to be hints that the whereabouts of the disappeared are about to be disclosed and somehow nothing ever happens. For God's sake get on with this. This is really something that could be done, a gesture, and more than a gesture, which I don't think will incriminate anyone at this stage, but will show some decent concern for other citizens," he added. Mr McLaughlin said he agreed with Sir Kenneth, and urged anyone, "whether they are IRA or any other organisations", who possess any relevant information which would resolve this "continuing tragedy" to disclose it immediately. "The issue of the missing is an extremely emotive one. It is clearly understood that this is an important and extremely sensitive matter, and one, which must be resolved if a proper process of grieving and healing for the families involved is to be possible," he said.
Mr McLaughlin added: "Clearly it is of paramount importance to the families that the fate of their missing relatives is known. The basic human requirement to mourn and to honour those we have lost is universally acknowledged and accepted."
In June it was reported that the IRA was considering disclosing the burial sites of about 12 people understood to be buried in the Republic. Mr McLaughlin said he didn't believe people were "wilfully withholding information" but rather there were "genuine difficulties for those who have the information". He implored anyone with information to end what he said must have been "a form of Chinese torture" for families when it was speculated in June that information about a dozen people would be released.
Families Against Intimidation and Terror said it hoped the IRA would give a prompt and positive response to Mr McLaughlin's comments.