By April Drew

An organization established in 1999 to help locate the remains of nine people abducted, murdered and secretly buried during Northern Ireland's Troubles are appealing to the Irish American community for help.

The Independent Commission for the Location of Victims Remains (ICLVR) has taken out advertisements in the Irish American press to encourage people to come forward with information about the exact location of the bodies. The commission believes that someone currently living in the U.S. may have information that could be crucial in assisting to locate the remains of loved ones.

Irish Commissioner Frank Murray said, “We are casting the net far and wide in the search for this information. Maybe there is someone who is living in America with some credible information about what happened some of these men. If that is the case, I would urge that person to come forward, use the confidential telephone number (below) or the address and help bring closure to these families who have suffered so much.”

Last week, Sinn Fein Leader Gerry Adams appealed to anyone with details about the disappeared to come forward with information. Appeals will also being made in local parish bulletins, notice boards and at masses throughout the country during the month of January.

Northern Ireland Comm-issioner Sir Kenneth Bloomfield emphasized that the commission is determined to do all that it can to help find the remains of the nine men.

“Earlier in the year we conducted a review of the work of the commission and presented a number of recommendations to both the British and Irish governments. These were accepted and we have made considerable progress in their implementation,” he said.

“We hope that our work will bring closure to the families. We want to find the remains of their loved ones, allow the families to have a funeral which gives them a place to grieve.”

Established in 1999 to document information on the location of the disappeared and facilitate the whereabouts of the victims remains, the ICLVR has provided a full list of victims whom the IRA admitted to having killed and buried in unknown locations during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

The bodies of of Seamus Wright, Kevin McKee, Columba McVeigh, Brendan Megraw and Danny Mcllhone are still missing. Since the commissions inception the remains of Eamon Molloy, Brian McKinney, John McClory and Jean McConville have been recovered.

In 2005, the ICLVR set up a forensic science investigation to conduct a survey of past actions and to calculate what further steps could be taken to recover the bodies of the disappeared. The review also examined the cases of other disappeared, including those of Charles Armstrong and Gerard Evans, who disappeared from Co. Armagh but for whom no one has claimed responsibility, Robert Nairac, who disappeared from Co. Armagh, and Seamus Ruddy, who vanished in France and whose murder was confessed by the INLA.

During this time a forensic expert met with IRA interlocutors in the hope of accurately identifying the resting places of those victims who were not found when the commission carried out its original excavations in 1999-2003.

The commission has set up a special post box in Dublin,ICLVR, PO Box 10827, Dublin 2 to receive information and a confidential telephone number, 00800-5558 5500. The commission cannot use any information it receives to bring about a prosecution.