March 08, 03:13 PM 
514 Chai Chee Lane 03-16, Singapore 469029 Dominique Sarron Lee's family has responded to yesterday's FB postings by Defence Minister Ng Eng Hen and the Singapore Armed Forces (SAF).
The family of the late Private Lee, who died in 2012 from an allergic reaction to smoke grenades during a military exercise, wanted to clarify their positions.
This was after SAF told the public yesterday that it tried to help NSF's family, punished the two officers involved and have made improvements to training safety regulations.
Minister Ng also told the public that Mindef should waive the legal costs that Lee's family has to pay, after the family lost their civil suit against the organisation and the two officers.
However, chief among the clarifications Lee's family wished to make include:
1. Mindef/ SAF actually did not apologise formally to the family until yesterday's FB post:
According to the family, the Facebook post by SAF yesterday (March 7) was "the first statement of apology from MINDEF". The family said that a MINDEF representative told them that the Minister or any senior official "will never apologise for the incident". The family's request for MINDEF to pay for Lee's tomb was rejected due to legal constraints.
(Editor's note - In fact, Minister Ng apologised to the families of Lee during his 2012 Ministerial statement, adding that the "SAF and MINDEF are deeply sorry for the untimely and tragic loss of PTE Lee" and the anguish and distress it has brought to their families).
2. Details on how the two negligent officers have been dealt with were found wanting:
The family said that Mindef/ SAF has yet to address the family's question on whether justice was done.
The family clarified that they were not out to persecute the two officers but felt that it was "contradiction of the assurances by MINDEF/SAF that the negligent officers have been duly dealt with", especially if a Facebook posting that one of the negligent officer was promoted turned out to be true.
3. Civil suit "never been about money":
Family would not have taken the legal route had Mindef been fully “committed to assisting and providing” the family with answers they seek.
The family had rejected offers from Mindef/ SAF to discuss monetary compensation. The family only accepted a funeral grant to defray the cost of the funeral, which according to the SAF, is not part of the compensation.
4. Mindef's conclusions from the findings of the Committee of Inquiry (COI) and the Coroner’s Inquiry (CI) were unclear:
The family said that CI was to ascertain the cause of death and "does not determine whether or not the 2 officers or MINDEF is/are culpable or not".
But Mindef's interpretations from the CI were unclear:
Defence Minister, in his Parliamentary Statement in November 2012, stated that the COI concluded that the two officers were negligent, but yesterday's Facebook statement by SAF stated that the COI “did not find that the two officers were directly responsible for PTE Lee’s death”.
You can read the full post by Lee's family here:
Following'>
Posted by In memory of Dominique Sarron Lee on Monday, March 7, 2016