On July 19, according to information from the Military Command of Dong Nai City (TP), implementing the direction of the Steering Committee 515 of Military Region 7, Colonel Nguyen Thanh Phong, Political Commissar of the Military Command, Standing Deputy Head of the Steering Committee for searching, repatriating and identifying martyrs' remains of Dong Nai city, had a working session with representatives of the Executive Board of the Vietnam Buddhist Sangha of Dong Nai City.
At the meeting, the two sides exchanged and reached agreement on important contents regarding the organization of a requiem ceremony for heroic martyrs in Minh Duc commune (belonging to Hon Quan district, former Binh Phuoc province) before officially carrying out the search and repatriation work at the locations where artifacts were discovered.
Accordingly, the two sides agreed on the detailed plan for surveying the location, careful preparation steps and setting the time to organize the requiem ceremony, thereby expressing deep gratitude and full affection for the spirits of the heroic martyrs.
According to information from the Military Command of Dong Nai city, from the 500-day and night campaign to promote the search, repatriation and identification of martyrs' remains, Team K72 discovered 2 locations with artifacts and remains of martyrs in Minh Duc commune.
From initial information from the people, Team K72 urgently mobilized manpower and machinery to survey and expand the search area to hundreds of square meters.
At the scene, functional forces cordoned off 2 locations with mass graves at a depth of about 1.2m. Officers and soldiers of Team K72 found many artifacts lying deep underground including: 1 AK rifle, 6 pens (including ink pens, ballpoint pens, pencils), 2 cylinders, 4 pairs of rubber sandals and hammock pieces, belts. In particular, in this area, there is 1 ink pen still quite clearly engraved with the words "Tien Quy" and the image of a pair of doves.
Previously, on July 18, Major General Tran Chi Tam - Deputy Political Commissar, Head of Steering Committee 515 Military Region 7 - and the working delegation visited, inspected and deployed a plan to verify, search for, and repatriate martyrs' remains in the Minh Duc commune area, Dong Nai City.
Steering Committee 515 of Dong Nai city, Team K72 is searching for witnesses who are veterans, historical witnesses, people who have related information who participated in combat, served in combat or treated and buried soldiers at the Minh Duc commune front in the period 1968 - 1975; relatives and comrades of martyrs who have information about martyrs named "Tien Quy" (or martyrs whose keepsake is a pen engraved with the name Tien Quy) who sacrificed on the Southeast battlefield; as well as local people in Dong Nai and across the country who know information related to trenches, fortifications or old burial locations in the rubber forest area, low hills of Minh Duc commune.
