Teleconference focuses on efforts to find, identify martyrs’ remains

Deputy PM Vu Duc Dam speaks at the event (Photo: VNA)

Hanoi (VNA) – A national teleconference was held in Hanoi on December 21 to review the implementation of a project on searching and repatriating martyrs’ remains during 2016 -2018 and another project on identifying remains that lacked information.

According to a report from the Ministry of National Defence, between 2016 and 2018, it had worked with the Ministry of Labour, Invalids, and Social Affairs (MoLISA) to transfer 1.9 million documents on martyrs to the Ministry of Information and Communications to build a database for the search and identification work. The MoLISA have collaborated with the Vietnam Post Corporation to design and operate an information portal on martyrs, graves, and cemeteries.

During the period, 5,885 sets of remains have been found, of which, 2,670 were unearthed in Vietnam, 854 in Laos, and 2,362 in Cambodia. Since 2017, 284 sets of remains have been verified and 475 others martyrs have been identified via DNA tests.

The implementation of the two projects has faced various difficulties, including increasing scarcity of information about martyrs and their families, the large number of remains in needed of finding or identifying, and mistakes in information management activities.

The Ministry of National Defence said it will work to basically complete a national database on martyrs, their families, graves, and cemeteries, as well as searching maps at commune, district, and provincial levels nationwide. The search campaigns in Cambodia and Laos will continue to be carried out, it added.

Speaking at the event, Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam lauded the effective coordination of agencies involved in carrying out the two projects.

He ordered the Ministry of National Defence to direct relevant agencies to speed up the search for remains and defuse leftover bombs at key locations, submit research to the Government on an identification process for remains that lack information, and complete the searching maps.–VNA