In Quang Tri province, authorities plan to exhume more than 22,000 unidentified war graves for DNA testing. More than three months into the campaign, search teams have recovered 58 sets of remains in Quang Tri and neighboring Laos.
Le Van Bao, Vice Chairman of the Quang Tri provincial People’s Committee and head of the province’s steering committee for the search, recovery, and identification of fallen soldiers’ remains, said: “More than 31,000 fallen soldiers in the province have yet to be found, and more than 25,000 recovered remains have not been identified. This requires us to make stronger commitment and more effective efforts to search for, recover, and identify the remains of fallen soldiers.”
Meanwhile, Khanh Hoa province plans to recover about 150 sets of fallen soldiers’ remains and collect DNA samples from 2,234 unidentified remains.
Colonel Vo Van Vien, Deputy Political Commissar of the Khanh Hoa provincial Military Command, said: “In martyr’s cemeteries in many provinces, there are still a large number of unidentified graves. The biggest challenge at present is identifying and collecting samples from remains that were recovered many years ago. As time passes, the remains become more degraded, making DNA sampling and identification increasingly difficult.”
In Lam Dong province, authorities have begun collecting samples, digitizing records, and building a DNA database for war remains at 10 martyrs’ cemeteries, with a total of 4,721 graves.
The province aims to complete DNA sampling for all unidentified graves by November.
