After 15 days of searching efforts in the Ca Cai Cemetery area (old) in Ca Cai hamlet, Tan Thanh commune, Team K91, Political Department, Military Command of Dong Thap province has collected more than 44 sets of martyrs' remains. According to witnesses, the martyrs who sacrificed in 1973 belonged to Regiment 207.
This achievement was achieved thanks to close coordination between Party committees at all levels, valuable information from witnesses, artifacts and related documents.
The search area is Mr. Do Van Cam's (63 years old) 2,500m2 coconut garden. Although the tree has been planted for 10 years, Mr. Cam's family completely agreed and supported all levels and sectors as well as for the soldiers to search.
On the first day, nothing was found, but on the second day, about 3 sets of remains were found, everyone was very happy," Mr. Cam shared.
Previously, Ms. Le Thi Ngan Ha (56 years old, residing in Ca Cai hamlet) proactively contacted Team K91 about the possibility of martyrs remaining in Mr. Cam's coconut garden. Ms. Ha knew this information from her mother-in-law, who is a wounded soldier who used to manage the old Ca Cai Cemetery and bury many martyrs.
Not stopping there, Ms. Ha and people in the hamlet also voluntarily hired excavators (kobe) to support soldiers when digging deep underground, and at the same time prepared meaningful meals to support officers and soldiers on duty.
According to officers of Team K91, because the burial time is about 50 years and the location of the coconut garden is located on an alluvial soil, after many periods of siltation, the team has to dig 2-3m deep to search. Not only working urgently during the day, when finding traces such as tarpaulins at night or when it rains, everyone puts in all their effort to bring up the martyrs' remains.
Most of the martyrs' remains found do not have identification information. After exhumation, Team K91 digitized the information and transferred it to the professional department to take DNA samples.
According to the Military Command of Dong Thap province, the province has excavated 4,268/11,810 graves (reaching 36.14% of the plan). Of which, 3,341/4,268 samples have been taken. However, there are still 927 graves that have not been sampled because the samples are mushy, rotten, and broken. Currently, the Provincial Military Command has handed over 900 samples to the DNA Examination Center/Institute of Biology.
Team K91 under the Military Command of Dong Thap province, is one of the specialized forces performing the task of searching, exhuming and repatriating martyrs' remains in Prey Veng and Pursat provinces (Cambodia), and also gathering them in Dong Thap province.
