At more than 6 am on July 29, dozens of officers, soldiers, doctors, and professional forces were present at the An Giang Provincial Martyrs' Cemetery in Rach Gia ward to begin their mission. After the incense offering ceremony to commemorate the heroic martyrs, the working group quickly went to the location to take samples of martyrs' remains for DNA testing.
According to the plan, from July 28 to August 20, 2026, the forces will take samples for 974 martyrs' graves that have not been identified at the Provincial Martyrs' Cemetery. This is the cemetery with the largest number of graves to be sampled in the province, so the preparation work is carried out carefully from reviewing dossiers, training procedures, arranging forces to ensuring vehicles and equipment to meet task requirements.
Senior Lieutenant Colonel Vuong Thanh Trieu, Deputy Head of the Political Department of An Giang Provincial Military Command, said that the force received the attention and direction of the Military Region, Provincial Party Committee, Provincial People's Committee and Provincial Steering Committee 515; synchronous coordination between departments, branches, and localities along with the spirit of responsibility of the force directly performing tasks. The dossiers of each grave were carefully reviewed, and professional procedures were agreed upon before deployment, so the sampling work took place according to plan.
However, the implementation process also faces many difficulties. The locality is entering the rainy season, the weather is erratic, many heavy rains affect excavation and site assurance. In addition, many cemeteries have undergone renovation and embellishment, so the structure of the graves has changed, accurately determining the location of remains takes a lot of time. Many graves have been buried for decades, the remains are weathered, rotten or no longer exist; some cases mix many remains, requiring specialized forces to handle them very carefully, according to technical procedures to ensure the quality of samples serving DNA testing.
Colonel Cao Minh Tam, Deputy Political Commissar of the Provincial Military Command, emphasized that identifying the identity of martyrs' remains is a political task of profound humanistic significance, reflecting the morality of "When drinking water, remember the source" and the responsibility of today's generation towards heroic martyrs. Faced with the huge workload in the province, the Provincial Steering Committee 515 decided to establish an additional Team to take samples of martyrs' remains, strengthen human resources, vehicles and equipment to accelerate progress but still absolutely ensure technical procedures. With the highest determination, the provincial armed forces and functional sectors will focus all resources, overcome difficulties caused by weather and actual conditions to complete the task according to the plan.
By July 29, the whole province had deployed sampling at 7 martyrs' cemeteries, carried out on 1,548 graves, collected 986 DNA samples. There are 562 graves that have not been sampled. With the strengthening of forces and synchronous implementation at cemeteries, An Giang province is determined to complete the sampling plan as soon as possible, gradually returning the names of heroic martyrs who are still missing information.
