McConville son calls on SF's McLaughlin to resign

The son of a Belfast mother murdered by the IRA in 1972 today called on Sinn Féin negotiator Mr Mitchel McLaughlin to resign after he said on television her killing "was not a criminal act".

Speaking to ireland.comthis afternoon, Jean McConville's son Michael asked Mr McLaughlin for a public apology.

According to Mr McConville, the Sinn Féin member said "It wasn't a crime, killing a widow with 10 children.

"He said it was wrong on the one hand but he said it wasn't a crime," Mr McConville said.

"I think he should resign from his job. And I want Sinn Féin . . . and Mitchel McLaughlin to give an apology for the family and I want him to make it public."

Mrs McConville was a widowed mother of ten children who was abducted and murdered by the IRA after she was accused of being an informer - a claim denied by her family.

She was one of the "disappeared" killed in this way - whose bodies were never returned to their families.

Her body was found by a passerby on a beach in Co Louth in August 2003. This followed two exhaustive searches on a nearby beach.

As the body was not discovered by gardaí the case file on her killing remains open. Mr McConville said a number of members of his family had been contacted by the Garda and asked for statements since the body was found.

Mr McLaughlin had described her killing as wrong but "not a criminal act" during a debate with the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell on RTÉ's Question Timelast night.

In a statement this afternoon, Mr McLaughlin accused Mr McDowell "of raising the killing of Jean McConville in an attempt to score cheap political points". Mr McLaughlin has not yet said whether he intends to apologise.

Mr McConville said his family was sick of the case being raised in public. "The politicians all the time seem to use this for their own self gain when they want to bring things up against Sinn Féin. The whole family is fed up with it."

Mr McConville said his family was still seeking an apology from the IRA for the killing. "Killing anybody - taking human life is wrong - it doesn't matter what the circumstances are. It's wrong to kill."

He also confirmed that he had met Sinn Féin president Mr Gerry Adams a number of times and hoped to do so again soon. "The conversations with Gerry Adams concerned my mother. He showed us respect and I think they will be fruitful. "

Mr McConville was also critical of the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, and the British Prime Minister Mr Tony Blair over their refusal to meet with relatives of the disappeared. "The likes of the Bertie Ahern wouldn't even meet members of the Families of the Disappeared."

"We [the families of the disappeared] tried to get meetings with both the leaders and they won't have any meetings with us at all".

He said the last attempt to meet the Taoiseach and Prime Minister was made in 2004.

"They say there is no update. [But] all the members of the families for the disappeared want to sit down and put things past them to see what sort of strategy they have to get the rest of the bodies back. We are just going to keep on trying to get a meeting with them.

"There is frustration among all the rest of the family members of the disappeared. That they can't get their loved one's bodies back. There are nine bodies still out there. There are three people theyt [the IRA] say they have not taken away and killed," Mr McConville said.

"Two of these people, Charlie Armstrong and Gerrad Evans in South Armagh and recently Gareth O'Connor who has gone missing . . . the IRA denies all knowledge of these people."

The Labour Party leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said Mr McLauglin's comments were "more than just grossly callous and insensitive".

"Any civilised society must consider the abduction and murder of a mother of ten children to be a crime of considerable barbarism," Mr Rabbitte said.