“Returning Identity - Connecting Relatives” for Heroic Martyrs

The search and collection of martyrs' remains has always been identified by Party committees, authorities, departments, branches and organizations in the province as an important political task, demonstrating the nation's morality of "When drinking water, remember its source".

Currently, there are still about 500,000 martyrs whose identities have not been determined, of which 200,000 remains have not been collected and 300,000 remains have been buried but lack information. This is a concern for the entire Party, the entire army and the people.

Meanwhile, time and harsh environmental conditions make the process of searching for and verifying the identities of martyrs difficult; many families and relatives of martyrs are no longer around. This requires the urgent implementation of the campaign of “Returning identities and connecting relatives” for martyrs.

Therefore, the Ministry of Public Security has proposed to the Government to conduct DNA analysis for all relatives of unidentified martyrs to create a large database to compare and search for information on the remains of unidentified martyrs. With this database, professional agencies and families of heroic martyrs can be completely confident that the search and verification of relatives will be effective.

Vietnamese Heroic Mothers, mothers of martyrs and relatives of martyrs whose identities have not been determined in the province have their DNA samples taken. Photo: Duong Ha

To express gratitude to the martyrs and their families who have made many contributions and sacrifices for the cause of fighting for independence and protecting the Fatherland, the Provincial People's Committee directed the Provincial Police to collect DNA samples for relatives of martyrs whose identities have not been determined.

As directed, the Provincial Police coordinated with the Department of Administrative Management of Social Order, Ministry of Public Security; Genstory Laboratory to collect DNA samples for relatives of unidentified martyrs in the area.

Identifying relatives according to priority. With this content, the gene bank will be accessed at the following locations: the martyr's biological mother; the martyr's maternal grandmother; the martyr's full siblings; the martyr's mother's full siblings (same biological mother); the martyr's mother's sister's children; the martyr's sister's children to collect samples through the martyr's monthly allowance recipients...

Mr. Phung Tang Sau, residing in Dong Tam ward (Vinh Yen), is the younger brother of martyr Phung Tang On. He shared: “The war has ended, but the wounds left by the war still exist. Hundreds of thousands of martyrs have not been gathered, and their information has not been identified. Many families, including mine, still hope to find the remains of their loved ones who sacrificed for the Fatherland. My family and comrades have searched many times but have not found any results.

With the attention of the Party and the State, the work of searching for and collecting martyrs' remains is now supported by technology with the collection and analysis of DNA information for all relatives of unidentified martyrs for identification and storage in the gene bank. This is a great policy, a meaningful humanitarian work to return the names of many martyrs. We hope to soon find and welcome martyrs back to their families and homeland...".

To facilitate the collection of DNA samples for unidentified martyrs' relatives in the province, quickly and accurately, the Provincial Police Department coordinated with the Department of Home Affairs to review and verify personal information of martyrs' families and collect, update and adjust if missing or incorrect; update the National Population Database system under the category of "martyrs' relatives" to ensure that the data is "correct, sufficient, clean and alive".

Local authorities step up information and propaganda work, thoroughly grasp the Party and State's guidelines and policies in searching for unidentified martyrs to show gratitude to them; mobilize people from all walks of life and the community to provide information, coordinate in searching for unidentified martyrs and their relatives to identify martyrs...

Kim Hien

Source: http://baovinhphuc.com.vn/Multimedia/Images/Id/128808/“Tra-danh-tinh---noi-nguoi-than”-cho-cac-Anh-hung-liet-si