The IRA were tonight urged to make a new effort to end the misery of the families of Northern Ireland's "disappeared".
Former Victims' Commissioner Sir Kenneth Bloomfield pleaded for fresh clues to the burial sites of several victims abducted at the height of the Troubles.
He said: "Even now, at this late hour, I appeal for any further information about the fate of the disappeared which would restore to grieving relatives the remains of a loved-one, lost so many years ago."
Mr Bloomfield told a service to remember victims of violence at St Anne's Cathedral in Belfast that amid the hope created by IRA decommissioning those who have suffered must not be left behind.
"I continue to believe that we need a commissioner or ombudsman for victims," he said.
"A person wholly independent both of national and provincial government, who can ensure that the interests of the victims will never be overlooked."
The former head of Northern Ireland's Civil Service also demanded those who fled the North following terrorist intimidation should now feel safe to come back.
"Since prisoners have been released and persons suspected of serious crime are to be free from prosecution, we can no longer tolerate the exile from Northern Ireland of people forced out by threat and intimidation."
Mr Bloomfield told how he had met with or received letters from hundreds of people affected by the violent death of loved-ones during his work as Victims' Commissioner in 1997 and 1998.
Expressing his gratitude to them, he added: "In those exchanges what was communicated above all else was the unique value of an individual human life."
PA