A motion calling for the IRA to retract allegations that 'Disappeared' teenager Columba McVeigh had been an informer has been unanimously supported by Dungannon and South Tyrone Borough Council.
The 22-strong council – including all eight Sinn Féin councillors – voted in favour of the motion proposed by SDLP Dungannon councillor Vincent Currie on Monday night.
The motion proposed that the IRA not only retract the informer allegations but apologise to the family and "cooperate fully with the authorities so that he may have a dignified, Christian funeral".
A friend of the family, Mr Currie travelled to Dublin and brought back Columba's belongings following his 1975 abduction.
"His murder was a brutal crime and deprivation of human rights of the worst kind," Mr Currie said.
"The IRA identified the site before and produced fresh information in 2000 which didn't yield anything and now they have fresher information.
"But if I had committed that crime and buried the body I would not be able to forget where it was," he added.
Sinn Féin deputy mayor Francie Molloy said he did not believe the IRA had ever tried to justify Columba McVeigh's murder. However, he added that his party hoped the updated information would lead to the body's discovery.
"We want the tragic circumstances brought to an end and the family to have the opportunity to have a dignified burial and a grave to visit."
The second day of the five-day dig got under way yesterday at around 8.30am and was attended by Sir Kenneth Bloomfield, Northern Ireland commissioner for the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains. His counterpart in the Republic, John Wilson, visited the site on Monday and both men sounded a note of caution against presuming remains would be found.
Sir Kenneth then visited Columba McVeigh's mother in her Donaghmore home.
Columba McVeigh was abducted and murdered by the IRA in 1975 and his family had to wait a further 24 years for the paramilitary organisation to tell them of his fate. In 1999 the IRA admitted it had abducted, shot dead nine people and buried them in unmarked graves in the Republic.
On Monday gardai began to excavate a remote section of land the size of a football pitch on a hillside where it is believed he is buried.
This is the third time officers have searched the bog land, located approximately five miles from Emyvale, and the decision to revisit the scene was taken following an "internal review" of information by the IRA.
A digger and team of officers will continue to excavate today on a Co Monaghan hillside.
