Addressing the Government's press conference on July 4, Colonel Le Van Son, Deputy Director of the Social Policy Department under the General Department of Politics of the Vietnam People's Army, described the campaign, lasting from March 15, 2026 to July 27, 2027, as a comprehensive effort aimed at achieving breakthroughs in locating, recovering and identifying fallen soldiers.
It focuses on five major objectives: recovering remains of about 7,000 martyrs; collecting samples from around 230,000 unidentified graves at martyrs' cemeteries; conducting DNA testing on approximately 18,000 sets of remains; establishing a genetic database of relatives of unidentified martyrs; and completing unexploded ordnance clearance in key former battlefields, including Vi Xuyen in Tuyen Quang Province, and Lao Cai and Lang Son provinces.
To support the work, the Ministry of National Defense has assigned quotas to military regions and units based on field surveys and verified information. Nationwide, 32 search and recovery teams with around 1,500 personnel are currently carrying out operations.
Son said a newly adopted approach has produced encouraging results. The initiative involves reviewing documents and information supplied by organizations and individuals both inside and outside Vietnam, followed by expert workshops to verify suspected mass grave locations.
