DNA testing helps identify martyrs
The Ministry of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs has given the test results to families of 94 martyrs who were buried in the Vietnam – Laos Friendship Cemetery in Nghe An Province.
The remains of another 49 unknown martyrs were also tested, helping to identify them and find their families.
They are among remains of 1,179 Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and military experts who died in Laos' Xieng Khouang Province.
Since 2011, the ministry has used gene testing to identify martyrs via their remains, helping families to find their relatives who died during the wartime.
Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung on January 14, 2013 approved a project to identify the remains of more than 800,000 martyrs by 2020.
According to the ministry, nearly 1.2 million people died in the resistance war against the French colonialists and the Americans. More than 900,000 sets of remains were found and buried at 3,077 cemeteries nationwide, but more than 300,000 were not identified. Nearly 200,000 bodies need to be traced, but there is a lack of information regarding their whereabouts.
Deputy minister Huynh Van Ty said that gene testing had proven effective and brought positive results, gaining trust from martyrs' families, he said.
