Can Tho (VNA) – Can Tho city’s Steering Committee 515 dispatched 670 bone samples from unidentified war martyrs to the Military Institute of Forensic Medicine in Hanoi for DNA analysis on July 2, following an incense ceremony at the municipal Martyrs’ Cemetery.
Two teams exhumed 807 graves of unknown soldiers at the site, and after technical screening, 670 bone samples were deemed viable for genetic analysis as of June 30, 15 days ahead of schedule, the committee said.
The samples were immediately trucked to Can Tho International Airport after the ceremony for airlift to Hanoi.
The DNA data will be cross-referenced with a database of relatives’ genetic profiles, a step toward identifying the fallen and ending decades of uncertainty for families awaiting word of their loved ones.
Sen. Lt. Col. Tong Hung Vinh, Deputy Director of the Political Department under municipal Military Command, said the sample collection and shipment is a core task of a 500-day campaign to speed up the search, recovery and identification of martyrs' remains. The committee chose this cemetery as the campaign’s first site.
According to him, plans are in place to next target the O Mon Martyrs’ Cemetery, where 1,324 graves are still unidentified, and then roll out sampling to 15 other cemeteries citywide, covering all 17 during the current campaign./.
