Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attends an online conference to review one year of implementing plan No. 356/KH-BCA-C06 on collecting DNA samples for relatives of unidentified martyrs nationwide - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
The conference was held directly at the Ministry of Public Security Hall, online to 34 connecting points in provinces and cities across the country. Also attending the conference were representatives of leaders of central ministries and branches, the Vietnam Association of Former People's Public Security Forces, the Vietnam Veterans Association, experts, scientists, relatives and families of martyrs whose identities were identified through DNA...
Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sent his deepest gratitude to the heroic martyrs, relatives and families of martyrs, Vietnamese Heroic Mothers, and wounded and sick soldiers - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
Based on the proposal of the Ministry of Public Security, the Government agreed to the policy of conducting DNA analysis on all relatives of martyrs whose identities have not been determined, creating a DNA database, comparing and searching for information on martyrs' remains to identify martyrs, according to Resolution No. 108 dated July 10, 2024 of the Government.
After 1 year of implementing Plan 356, with close coordination of the Ministry of Public Security, Ministry of National Defense, Ministry of Home Affairs, and localities, we have achieved important initial results.
Accordingly, more than 300,000 information on unidentified martyrs and their relatives has been updated and standardized, reaching 42.3% of the total information needed to be collected; nearly 60,000 DNA samples have been collected for Vietnamese Heroic Mothers, biological mothers and relatives of martyrs nationwide, and more than 11,000 samples have been analyzed and updated into the identification database.
To date, the Ministry of Public Security has coordinated with the Department of Meritorious People to review and complete the records, identifying 16 martyrs through DNA matching. At the event, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh and leaders of the Ministry of Public Security respectfully presented the martyrs' relatives with the DNA test results, bringing the martyrs back to their families and homeland, something that the families have been waiting for and searching for for many years.
Relatives of the martyrs expressed their joy and emotion at the attention of the Party, State, Ministry of Public Security and other ministries and branches, contributing to easing the pain.
The Prime Minister emphasized that this conference is a program full of humanity, depth, and responsibility towards the outstanding children who sacrificed for the Fatherland and the people - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
Speaking at the conference, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh emphasized that in the atmosphere of the whole country celebrating the 78th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day on July 27, this conference is a program full of humanity, depth, and responsibility towards the outstanding children who sacrificed for the Fatherland and the people; carrying out the political tasks identified in the process of identifying and searching for information for martyrs; praising organizations and individuals who have carried out this meaningful work, with responsibility and affection coming from the heart.
On behalf of the Party and State leaders, General Secretary To Lam, on behalf of the Government, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh sent his deepest gratitude to the heroic martyrs, their families, Vietnamese Heroic Mothers, wounded and sick soldiers, and those who have contributed to the revolution. This is also the gratitude of those who are living and enjoying independence and freedom to those who have devoted and sacrificed for the independence and freedom of the Fatherland, and the prosperous and happy life of the people.
"Whatever we do is valuable, but no matter how much we do, it is not enough compared to the sacrifices of the heroic martyrs; and we are determined to do it, do it all, do it until we can't do it anymore", the Prime Minister emphasized and expressed his emotion at the acts of participation in the program by organizations, individuals, people, businesses, and citizens, demonstrating "national love, compatriotism", and the spirit of solidarity of our nation.
The Prime Minister said that through the wars to protect the Fatherland, for the noble international duty, our country has about 1.2 million martyrs, over 900,000 martyrs' remains buried in martyrs' cemeteries, about 300,000 martyrs' remains have been buried but their identities have not been determined, about 175,000 martyrs' remains from all battlefields (in the country and Laos, Cambodia) are continuing to be searched for and gathered; there are about 652,000 wounded soldiers, 198,000 sick soldiers, more than 132,000 heroic Vietnamese mothers, 320,000 people affected by Agent Orange/dioxin.
"Now, the war is far away, but many families still yearn and hope for information about the graves and remains of their loved ones to bring them back to their homeland for burial. Meanwhile, as time passes, the harsh environmental conditions of the climate and weather make it more difficult and challenging to search for and identify martyrs. If we do not act quickly, the martyrs' relatives will also pass away without having time to identify their information. Therefore, this work needs to be accelerated, breakthrough, breakthrough, and even faster to meet the requirements and we have no choice but to race against time," the Prime Minister emphasized.
"We also determined that DNA is not only biological information but also the key to open and restore historical memories for relatives of martyrs' families who sacrificed their lives. It is an important tool to connect the past, present, and future, meeting the aspirations of martyrs' families. By identifying martyrs using molecular technology, Vietnam not only masters science but also affirms the moral values and humanistic identity of the nation," the Prime Minister said emotionally.
Currently, we are investing in science and technology, effort, intelligence, and finance for this work. The Party and the State identify the work of searching for, collecting martyrs' remains, and verifying the identities of martyrs as an important and sacred task of the entire political system. The entire society needs to continue investing with enthusiasm, intelligence, technology, and compassion, diligence, dedication, joint efforts, contributions, and support from the people, businesses, and authorities.
Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
During the implementation process, the Public Security of many localities (such as Ninh Binh, Ha Nam (old), Thanh Hoa, Thai Binh (old), Hanoi) have promoted their leading and core roles, with many creative and flexible ways of working, advising local Party committees and authorities to direct and mobilize departments, unions, relevant agencies, businesses, and individuals to support, accompany, provide funding, conduct gene sequencing, and put the martyrs' genes into the gene bank.
On behalf of the Party and State leaders, the Prime Minister warmly commends the efforts of the police at all levels, units and localities, the close coordination of ministries, branches and agencies, and the valuable support of the people, businesses, organizations and individuals. The above results are the product of intelligence, science, dedication, and the convergence of the nation's combined strength to carry out a noble, humane, sacred and noble political task.
"This cannot be calculated by specific values, it is difficult to measure; the most important thing is that you do it with the highest spirit, as effectively as possible, selflessly, and transparently; regardless of rain or shine, "overcoming the sun, overcoming the rain, not losing to the wind and storm" to do it," the Prime Minister emotionally shared.
In addition, the Prime Minister also pointed out the limitations and shortcomings that need to be overcome, such as the division of responsibilities among agencies is not yet synchronized, lacking unified coordination; the database on martyrs and their relatives is still lacking, scattered, and overlapping; the review of martyrs' relatives is still facing difficulties because many martyrs' relatives are old and no longer alive, the collection and statistics of records and databases are still lacking. Propaganda work still has limitations.
In the coming time, the Prime Minister requested ministries and branches to urgently overcome these obstacles according to their functions, tasks and powers, proactively remove them and speed up the implementation of the plan to collect DNA samples of martyrs' relatives in the coming time. This shows practical gratitude to those who sacrificed for the Fatherland.
The Prime Minister was moved: "By identifying martyrs using molecular technology, Vietnam not only masters science but also affirms the moral values and humanistic identity of the nation" - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
In the coming time, the Prime Minister suggested that we must act with a noble humanity, the most sacred responsibility and duty towards those who have sacrificed; promote the deepest "patriotic love, compatriotic love", promote the tradition of "When drinking water, remember the source", "When eating fruit, remember the person who planted the tree", with all respect, actions stemming from the heart's command, continue to do this work to be good then better, if it is effective then be more effective, make efforts then make more efforts, try harder then try harder, race against time, meet the expectations of the martyrs' families, worthy of the sacrifice of the heroic martyrs.
The Prime Minister requested leaders at all levels, sectors and localities, especially Ministers, heads of relevant agencies, Secretaries and Chairmen of People's Committees of localities to mobilize the participation of the entire political system, the Fatherland Front, sectors, organizations and people together with the police force to review, mobilize and collect information on martyrs, balance local budgets, and mobilize social resources for the work of collecting, analyzing DNA and sequencing the genes of martyrs' remains.
In particular, it is necessary to increase access to each family of martyrs, especially in remote areas, ethnic minority areas, and places with many difficulties; it is important to connect information, meet, exchange, collect documents, even the smallest ones, approach witnesses...; regularly review, inspect, and urge work, detect difficulties and obstacles, and propose solutions; do a good job of emulation and rewards; summarize good, creative, and effective practices.
The Prime Minister presents identity certificates to families of martyrs - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
Regarding a number of specific tasks, the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Home Affairs to urgently advise the National Steering Committee on searching, gathering, and identifying martyrs' remains to issue a master plan for implementing the collection of biological samples of relatives of unidentified martyrs, propose analyzing collected DNA samples of martyrs' remains, and integrate analyzed data to conduct comparison with the DNA of martyrs' relatives.
Director of Ninh Binh Provincial Police presents a speech - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
The Ministry of Public Security continues to coordinate with units and localities, strengthen the application of digital technology, maximize the exploitation of population data, connect biological data, gene technology... accelerate efforts to basically create and collect complete information of all unidentified martyrs by 2027, collect and analyze DNA samples for relatives of martyrs eligible for gene bank integration; build an integrated data system; closely connect with the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Home Affairs, and local People's Committees to create a synchronous and effective coordination network.
The Ministry of National Defense closely coordinates with the Ministry of Public Security to direct search teams to collect and connect information.
The Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Health, and the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology continue to research and apply advanced biotechnology, provide in-depth training in DNA techniques to improve analytical capacity, and serve the appraisal work with the highest possible accuracy; allocate resources to establish a project to purchase more modern machinery to serve the work.
The Ministry of Finance closely coordinates with ministries and branches to remove difficulties, ensure funding arrangements, provide clear and transparent guidance on payment of DNA testing costs, avoid delays that affect the overall progress, affect our feelings and responsibilities; account for regular expenditures of local ministries and branches from 2025 for this work.
Chairmen of People's Committees of provinces and cities, especially those with a large number of unidentified martyrs (Quang Tri, Hue, Da Nang, etc.), shall conduct a general review, make a list and develop a plan to collect DNA samples from martyrs' relatives, ensuring that sample collection is completed before June 30, 2026 and testing, analysis and updating to the Gene Bank before December 31, 2026 to celebrate the 80th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day.
Enterprises and scientific and technological organizations continue to accompany, research and improve techniques, optimize the martyrs' gene data system; press agencies strengthen propaganda, spread the spirit of gratitude, multiply noble moral and humanistic values.
The Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front, socio-political organizations, mass organizations, military and police forces launched emulation movements and widely propagated to all people the important significance of this work; strengthened the mobilization of agencies, organizations, enterprises and people to mobilize resources, promote the strength of national solidarity for this sacred and noble work, with the spirit of "whoever has something helps, whoever has merit helps merit, whoever has property helps property, whoever has a lot helps a lot, whoever has little helps a little"; the rest must be shouldered by the state budget.
The Prime Minister stated that the work of "repaying gratitude" and "remembering the source of water when drinking" is not only a major policy of the Party and State, but also a command from the heart, a political responsibility, and the morality of our entire political system and society.
The application of DNA technology in identifying martyrs, building databases and gene banks for martyrs is a great step forward in science, law, and humanity. It is a sacred duty, a noble responsibility, and a sincere sentiment of the Party, the State, and the entire political system towards those who have sacrificed. We must do it with the highest sense of responsibility, awareness, and sincere sentiment.
Families of martyrs attend the Conference - Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
Photo: VGP/Nhat Bac
The Prime Minister affirmed that we hope and believe that with the steadfastness and perseverance in applying modern science and technology, with deep gratitude and appreciation for "national love and compatriotism", with high determination, great efforts, and drastic actions of the entire Party, the entire army, and the entire people, ministries, branches, localities, and agencies will continue to coordinate closely, effectively, and creatively and more effectively utilize tools, means, and resources to effectively carry out this special task, achieving the goal of bringing many martyrs back to their names, to their homelands and families, so that no martyrs will be forgotten, no martyrs' families will have to wait and look forward in vain, contributing to easing the pain of war of the nation and of each family, contributing to fulfilling their obligations to those who did not fear danger, heroically fought and sacrificed their blood and bones and themselves so that the country could be peaceful and unified, and the people could be prosperous and happy.
Ha Van
Source: https://baochinhphu.vn/thu-tuong-quy-tap-hai-cot-xac-minh-danh-tinh-liet-si-kho-may-cung-phai-lam-va-lam-bang-ca-trai-tim-102250725174003681.htm
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