At the government's regular press conference on 4/7, Colonel Le Van Son, Deputy Director of the Policy and Social Affairs Department, General Department of Politics, Vietnam People's Army, announced that the 500-day-and-night campaign to intensify the search, collection, and identification of martyrs' remains was launched on 2/4. The campaign officially runs from 15/3/2026 to 27/7/2027.

The campaign's objectives include locating and collecting approximately 7,000 martyrs' remains. It also aims to complete the sampling of 230,000 unidentified martyrs' graves in cemeteries, conduct DNA testing on 18,000 samples of martyrs' remains, and establish, refine, and operate a gene database for relatives of unidentified martyrs.

Additionally, the campaign will clear bombs, mines, and explosives, focusing on core areas such as Vi Xuyen (Tuyen Quang), Lao Cai, and Lang Son, to facilitate the search and collection of martyrs' remains.

As of 4/7, the campaign was on its 111th day and had achieved several results. The Ministry of National Defense assigned specific search and collection targets to various units, and 32 collection teams, comprising 1,500 personnel, have been reinforced.

Colonel Le Van Son, Deputy Director of the Policy and Social Affairs Department, General Department of Politics, Vietnam People's Army, and Deputy Head of the Office of the National Steering Committee for the Search, Collection, and Identification of Martyrs' Remains. Photo: Nhat Bac/VGP

Agencies are also reviewing information, particularly declassified foreign documents, to organize workshops to verify and conclude information regarding mass graves of martyrs. Following hai workshops in Quang Ngai and TP HCM, Quang Ngai has so far found mot set of martyrs' remains. In TP HCM, units are currently surveying and detecting sites, with an excavation ceremony planned for Le Thi Rieng Park on 6/7 to locate martyrs' remains.

Colonel Le Van Son noted that a new search method combines map coordinate matching with on-site verification, witness accounts, and modern equipment like ground-penetrating radar. This approach increases accuracy, reduces search time, and lessens the volume of excavation and demolition required during the search for martyrs' remains.

The Ministry of National Defense is conducting a simultaneous sampling of martyrs' remains from unidentified graves in approximately 3,000 cemeteries nationwide. The Ministry has issued guidelines for the process of collecting, transporting, handing over, preserving, and storing martyrs' remains samples, and has organized nationwide training.

To minimize errors and confusion during the collection and handover of martyrs' remains samples, the Ministry of National Defense assigned the Military Industry and Telecommunications Group (Viettel) to develop a sample information management software. This software digitizes and stores all information from the sampling process, ensuring that collected samples can be "traced" if any errors occur during handover or storage. To date, over 300 teams, comprising approximately 3,300 people, are involved in collecting martyrs' remains samples.

Regarding the identification of martyrs' remains, the Ministry of Home Affairs advised the government to issue specific policies to address challenges in organizing the collection, testing, and DNA-based identification. This provides a basis for localities to budget and secure funding for collecting and DNA-testing martyrs' remains.

According to Colonel Le Van Son, the Ministry of National Defense has established 330 bomb and mine clearance teams, with more than 5,000 personnel and 1,300 vehicles, to clear bombs, mines, and explosives in the core areas of Vi Xuyen, Tuyen Quang, and Lang Son.

To date, the campaign has located and collected 1,300 martyrs' remains and ba mass graves in Tuyen Quang. It has also sampled 27,000 martyrs' graves, with nearly 20,000 meeting the conditions for sampling, and handed over 9,000 samples to DNA testing units. The military has cleared bombs and mines across an area of 7,000 hectares, including 3,000 hectares in the Vi Xuyen core area, achieving over 70% of the target. The Ministry of Public Security has collected nearly 95,000 biological samples from martyrs' relatives, analyzed, and synchronized over 50,000 samples into the database.

The location of ba trenches in Le Thi Rieng Park, suspected to be mass graves for soldiers during the Mau Than 1968 offensive. Graphic: Khanh Hoang

Previously, a research group posited that Le Thi Rieng Park, formerly Chi Hoa cemetery, might contain ba mass grave trenches holding approximately 900 fallen soldiers and civilians from the Tet Mau Than 1968 General Offensive and Uprising. This conclusion stemmed from an 8-year research project led by architect Nguyen Xuan Thang's team, which cross-referenced historical photographic documentation from AP and satellite imagery from the 1968-1972 period.

On 22/6, several areas within Le Thi Rieng Park were cordoned off in preparation for exploratory digging where the ba suspected mass grave trenches of approximately 900 martyrs are thought to be located.

Vu Tuan