The 9 localities are Tuyen Quang, Lai Chau, Son La, Lao Cai, Quang Ninh, Ninh Binh, Ha Tinh, Hue, and Lam Dong. Lao Cai completed the collection of biological samples 12 months ahead of the schedule.
Colonel Hoang Van Toan, Deputy Head of the National Steering Committee for search, collection and identification of fallen soldiers' remains in Lao Cai, said: “Some remains have been buried for decades, so the quality of the samples is not always good. But with today’s technology, we can still extract DNA from many of these remains and identify the fallen soldiers.”
Dien Bien province is making significant progress under the campaign. Colonel Duong Quoc Long, Deputy Political Commissar of the Dien Bien provincial Military Command, said deadline has been set to get the job done.
“We are accelerating our efforts and striving to complete the task before September 30. September is the rainy season in Dien Bien, so we have prepared contingency plans to continue the work even on rainy and stormy days. We are very determined to accomplish the task this September,” said Colonel Long.
The 500-day-and-night campaign has several targets, including to find and recover 7,000 sets of martyrs’ remains, collect samples from those remains and from 230,000 unidentified martyrs’ graves in cemeteries, conduct DNA testing on 18,000 samples, and build a genetic database from DNA samples of relatives of missing martyrs to facilitate DNA matching.
So far, Vietnam has recovered 1,715 remains of fallen soldiers (24.5% of the target), and samples have been collected from 124,000 martyrs’ graves (58.4% of the target).
Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra has called for the completion of a comprehensive database of martyrs’ graves by the end of this year.
“The Ministry of Home Affairs must complete a comprehensive database on martyrs and their graves, and the Ministry of National Defence is responsible for the martyrs’ records. Without complete data, it will be very difficult to identify the fallen soldiers. This database must be ready by the end of the year,” said Ms. Tra.
The 500-day-and-night campaign to accelerate the search, recovery, and identification of martyrs' remains is a political task that embodies a spirit of humanity. The timely completion of sample collection from martyrs' remains by localities will contribute to the success of this campaign.
