Finian McGrath (Dublin North Central, Independent)
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Question 1417: To ask the Minister for Defence the position regarding his investigation into the death of a person (details supplied) in the Congo and the circumstances. [1355/06]

Willie O'Dea (Limerick East, Fianna Fail)
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Following a number of questions in the Dáil on this matter I undertook to have the military archive examined on the Niemba ambush and to revert with the findings. The question arising was whether Trooper Browne was killed at the Niemba ambush or whether he survived for a few days and was killed near a village where he was foraging for food. A recently published book, The Irish Army in the Congo 1960-64 outlines the second version and draws on material from the unit history for this account. This differs from the long held understanding that nine members of the Defence Forces died at Niemba. Accordingly, I requested the military authorities to examine the relevant files and they have reverted with the following information. The unit history that has been referred to holds many differing accounts of how Trooper Browne met his untimely death. The unit history, written six years after the event, does not attempt to reconcile the differing accounts of Trooper Browne's death.

The unit history does include an account that Trooper Browne survived the initial action for two days and was killed approximately three miles from the site of the action. However, this information was not included in the Dáil replies because it is not supported by any independent sources. In November 1961, the Tribunal de Premiere Instance d'Elizabethville, convicted five Baluba tribesmen of killing Trooper Browne and eight others on the 8 November 1960. Information from Baluba survivors in Manona hospital in 1960 led investigators to believe that Trooper Browne was killed at Niemba and that his body had been removed from the scene by the ambushers. It was a Baluba custom that they bore off from the field of battle their most courageous victim. Accordingly, it was decided that, on the balance of probability, Trooper Browne died on the battlefield in an attempt to save his comrades life. What remains incontrovertible is that Trooper Browne died, directly or indirectly, as a result of the Niemba engagement.