IRA 'sorry' for Disappeared

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From the UK's BBC News:

The IRA has apologised for the grief caused to the families of the so-called Disappeared. Its statement follows confirmation that the remains found recently on a beach in the Irish Republic were those of Belfast woman Jean McConville who disappeared in 1972. The organisation said on Friday that it was sorry that the suffering of the families has continued for so long. Four bodies have been recovered since the first IRA statement on the Disappeared was released in 1999. Then, the organisation said it had believed it had identified nine burial sites.

The IRA statement said that within the past few months, there has been a re-examination of the information available and that each of those sites has been revisited.

As a result of this it has passed on information relating to the two sites where it believed the bodies of Jean McConville and Colomba McVeigh had been buried. The IRA has said it has acted in good faith and will do all it can to bring closure for the other families. The body said that if further information becomes available it will be assessed and processed. Mrs McConville, 37, a mother of 10 from west Belfast, was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1972, after she went to the aid of a fatally wounded British soldier outside her front door. Police confirmed on Monday that the remains, found at Shelling Hill beach in County Louth in August, were those of Mrs McConville.

Mr McVeigh's body has not been found despite extensive searches by gardai of an area close to the border in the Irish Republic.
Mrs McConville's daughter Helen McKendry said the statement meant nothing to her.

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More: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/3210967.stm