UN to give family of Private Sean Rooney more details about his death
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The UN is to give Private Sean Rooney’s family as-yet unpublished details about the slain peacekeeper’s death.
To date, the UN has always insisted its final Board of Inquiry report — which is based on Unifil’s so-called Administrative Report into the incident — could not be made public.
Unifil’s report was completed earlier this year and while a copy went to the UN in New York, a redacted version was also sent to gardaí and the Government. Unifil’s investigation was launched a few hours after Pte Rooney and three colleagues were fired on in Al-Aqibiya on the night of December 14, 2022.
After members of a group of people who had surrounded the vehicle in the southern Lebanon town managed to pull open the tailgate of the vehicle, Pte Rooney managed to get away from them.
But as the 24-year-old from Newtowncunningham, Co Donegal, was driving his colleagues to safety — and saved their lives — a volley of shots were fired into the back of his vehicle.
At least one bullet hit Pte Rooney moments before he crashed and the vehicle, which was just four minutes from the main highway into Beirut, overturned, Trooper Shane Kearney, from Killeagh, Co Cork, sustained a serious head injury during the crash and he is still recovering from his injuries.
In January last year, the revealed Unifil’s Administrative Report concluded Pte Rooney’s death followed “a series of unfortunate situations”, according to a security source at the time.
These situations include issues around communications failures and the integrity of Unifil vehicles used in Lebanon. However, it has since emerged that there are other unresolved issues, including the whereabouts of a diary owned by Captain David Kelly who was in charge of the fatal convoy.
The coroner in Pte Rooney’s inquest, which was opened earlier this year, heard a request had been made for the diary, a notebook and his phone records.
Questions also remain about why Pte Rooney's vehicle was immobilised for around 20 minutes, during which he lost contact with Captain Kelly.
It is understood to have happened after an electronic counter measure (ECM) — which jams the signals used to set off roadside bombs — prevented the vehicle from starting for about 20 minutes. There are also questions around the nature of Pte Rooney's injuries.
Of the decision to provide Pte Rooney’s family with more detail, UN General Secretary Antonio Guterres’ spokesperson said the UN had already provided “quite a bit of information” to Pte Rooney’s family.
Speaking to reporters, he also said: “I think there is more information in the pipeline that will be shared. Boards of Inquiry remain internal documents.
“It doesn't mean that at some point some information harvested as part of that inquiry cannot be shared with relevant parties. More information is coming down the pipeline.”