Ho Chi Minh City (VNA) – Director of the General Department of Politics under the Vietnam People’s Army General Nguyen Trong Nghia on July 11 paid tribute to fallen heroes and martyrs and inspected the ongoing search and recovery operation for martyrs’ remains at Le Thi Rieng Park in Ho Chi Minh City.
Meeting with personnel at the site, Nghia, who is also Politburo member and Secretary of the Party Central Committee, affirmed that caring for war invalids and martyrs has remained a consistent priority of the Party, the State, President Ho Chi Minh and the military since the resistance wars.
He commended the Military Region 7 Command, Ho Chi Minh City's authorities and all participating forces for their efforts to locate and recover the remains of soldiers who sacrificed their lives during the 1968 Tet General Offensive and Uprising and were buried at the park.
Nghia described the ongoing 500-day campaign as a sacred mission that embodies the Vietnamese tradition of remembering those who served and sacrificed for the nation. The current generation, he said, must spare no effort in carrying out the Party’s policy and fulfilling the aspirations of the people, particularly the families of the fallen.
According to the officer, continuing the search and identification work is essential not only to fully implement policies for martyrs and their relatives, but also to preserve valuable historical evidence that helps clarify a heroic chapter in the history of the Vietnam People’s Army, Military Region 7 and the units that fought during the 1968 Tet campaign.
He encouraged officers and soldiers participating in the operation and affirmed that the Central Military Commission, the Ministry of National Defence and the General Department of Politics will continue to direct, monitor and support the search mission.
Maj. Gen. Nguyen Thanh Trung, Political Commissar of the Ho Chi Minh City High Command and standing deputy head of the city’s steering committee for the search, collection and identification of martyrs’ remains, reported that after five days of excavation, the force had recovered 29 sets of martyrs’ remains as of July 11, including 13 with personal artefacts.
Initial findings indicate that the remains were buried in two layers. Artefacts found in the first layer are believed to belong mainly to liberation forces that participated in the first phase of the 1968 Tet Offensive. Discoveries from the second layer suggest the remains may include Saigon commandos involved in attacks on the US Embassy, the Joint General Staff headquarters, the radio station and the television station during the campaign.
Alongside the excavation, the Ho Chi Minh City High Command is working with specialised agencies to collect DNA samples from all recovered remains. It has also asked the Tay Ninh provincial steering committee to coordinate the collection of DNA samples from relatives of martyrs from Long An Battalion 1, especially those who fell between 1965 and 1968, to support efforts to verify the identities of the fallen soldiers.
The recovery team comprises officers and soldiers selected from Military Region 7’s four specialised K units – K70, K71, K72 and K73, all of whom have extensive experience in searching for and recovering martyrs’ remains./.
