Launching the Gene Bank for Unidentified Martyrs and their Relatives

On the morning of July 23, in Hanoi, Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh attended a conference to honor people with revolutionary contributions in 2024 and launch the Gene Bank for unidentified martyrs and their relatives organized by the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs (MOLISA).

According to Minister of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung, on the occasion of the traditional July, the Government has issued a Plan to celebrate the 77th anniversary of War Invalids and Martyrs Day. The Standing Secretariat has issued a document assigning Party and State leaders to visit, present gifts and attend commemorative activities; localities have supported hundreds of billions of VND in caring for people with meritorious services.

The President presented gifts to nearly 1.4 million people with revolutionary contributions and their relatives, with a total cost of nearly VND 420 billion. The Government also issued Decree No. 77/2024/ND-CP dated July 1, 2024, regulating the adjustment of the standard level of preferential allowance for people with revolutionary contributions from VND 2,055,000 to VND 2,789,000 (an increase of 35.7%). This is the highest increase in the standard level of preferential allowance for people with revolutionary contributions in the past decades, which has been welcomed and supported by public opinion and people with revolutionary contributions and their relatives.

Regarding housing support for people with revolutionary contributions, from the outstanding results in the period of 2013-2020, with more than 10,000 billion VND from the guaranteed central budget, the whole country has completed the support for new construction and repair for 393,707 households of people with revolutionary contributions according to Decision No. 22/2013/QD-TTg; at the same time, the Project to support housing for people with revolutionary contributions until 2025 is being implemented, with an expected number of over 162,000 households, with a budget of about 7,000 billion VND.

Gratitude activities are increasingly developing widely, receiving the support and support of society, and becoming a beautiful tradition of the nation. Over the past 10 years (2013 - 2023), the whole country has mobilized nearly 7,900 billion VND to support families with meritorious services; built 67,700 new houses and repaired nearly 45,900 gratitude houses, with a total support budget of over 12,700 billion VND; donated more than 110,000 savings books to policy families, with over 403 billion VND and supported some especially difficult cases; 2,412 Vietnamese Heroic Mothers who are still alive are cared for and supported by organizations for life.

Monuments to commemorate martyrs are regularly cared for, maintained, and restored. The whole country has renovated, upgraded, repaired, and embellished over 3,000 martyr cemeteries and over 4,000 monuments to commemorate martyrs. Information on martyrs' gravestones has been standardized. Over the past two years, 20,000 gravestones that were marked "unknown martyrs" have been adjusted and unified to mark "graves of unidentified martyrs" according to regulations.

Regarding the consideration and recognition of people with revolutionary contributions, after 6 years of implementing the settlement of backlog records, the whole country has basically resolved over 7,000 records, including submitting to the Prime Minister for recognition and granting of certificates of merit to more than 2,400 martyrs (during the period of resistance against the French and the early stages of the resistance war against the US) and more than 2,700 war invalids and people enjoying policies like war invalids. This is an extremely difficult task, because the time has been too long, the records are lost, the person who assigned the task is no longer alive, comrades, witnesses have all passed away...

These results are full of deep affection and gratitude towards war invalids, sick soldiers, families of martyrs and people with revolutionary contributions, partly easing the pain and loss of those who remain, demonstrating responsibility towards those who sacrificed for the cause of fighting to protect the great Fatherland of the nation, and recognizing the efforts of the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in recent times.

Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said: “The conference to honor people with revolutionary contributions in 2024 was attended by over 400 delegates of outstanding people with revolutionary contributions from all over the country and welcomed 13 delegates who are revolutionary veterans, pre-uprising cadres, 6 heroic Vietnamese mothers, 36 heroes of the people's armed forces, heroes of labor during the resistance war, more than 200 war invalids, including 22 war invalids with a working capacity reduction of 81% or more, 44 sick soldiers, 53 relatives of martyrs, and other outstanding delegates of people with revolutionary contributions. Notably, among the delegates attending were 33 delegates of ethnic minorities Bana, Cham, Ede, Hre, Jrai, Muong, Nung, Paco, Ragiai, Tay, Thai...”.

“We are moved and happy to welcome Mr. Le Quang A, who is 100 years old this year, 80 years of Party membership, from Ha Tinh province, a pre-uprising cadre, contributing to the overall victory of the August Revolution. We are grateful to the heroic Vietnamese mother Le Thi Thanh, born in 1932 from Binh Dinh. During the two long resistance wars of the nation, she lost her loved ones, her blood relatives, her husband, children and sister who were martyrs. We were moved to meet the heroine Ngo Thi Tuyen who fought alongside the historic Ham Rong bridge, with the legendary story of a female militiaman weighing only 42 kg carrying 2 ammunition boxes weighing 98 kg to supply ammunition to the troops, a symbol of the indomitable will of the Vietnamese army and people. In 1967, she was awarded the title of Hero of the People's Armed Forces when she was only 21 years old...”, Minister Dao Ngoc Dung shared.

The war has ended, the country has become independent and unified, but there is still so much pain, nearly 200,000 martyrs have not been gathered, nearly 300,000 martyrs have not been identified. Recently, we have implemented the Project to identify the remains of martyrs with missing information (Project 150), using DNA identification and empirical methods. The DNA identification method has been deployed on nearly 10,000 samples of martyrs' remains and more than 3,000 biological samples of martyrs' relatives. As a result, more than 1,000 martyrs' identities have been compared and matched to inform the martyrs' relatives.

Implementing the plan to search for, collect martyrs' remains and identify the remains of martyrs with missing information by 2030, the Prime Minister's direction on national digital transformation and Project 06 of the Government, on the current platform, units have stored data of over 25,000 DNA data of martyrs' remains and relatives.

At the conference, the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security to propose that the Government build a gene bank (DNA) for unidentified martyrs and their relatives.

Taking DNA samples of unidentified martyrs and all direct relatives of unidentified martyrs for identification and storing them in the Gene Bank will be the best preparation for the long journey of searching for and identifying the remains of unidentified martyrs.

“This is a meaningful and sacred task, we must race against time, the faster we can do it, because time does not allow for prolongation, but this is also a heavy and arduous task, done with the command of the heart in the journey of searching and returning the names of heroic martyrs. Connecting the National Population Database and DNA technology will bring hope of reunion to many families, contributing to alleviating the loss and sacrifice of martyrs' relatives,” Minister Dao Ngoc Dung affirmed.

8 Hai Duong delegates attend the conference to honor people with revolutionary contributions in 2024

Hai Duong has 8 delegates attending the conference to honor people with revolutionary contributions in 2024 and launch the gene bank (DNA) of unidentified martyrs and their relatives.

Specifically, they include Mr. and Mrs. Do Thi Minh Hao (born in 1929, in Ngoc Chau ward), pre-uprising cadre, 80-year Party membership badge; Nguyen Duy Phieu (born in 1948, in Le Thanh Nghi ward), war invalid, 45% body injury rate, with achievements during the revolutionary period; Pham Van Khanh (born in 1965, in Quang Trung ward, Hai Duong city), war invalid 21%, Secretary of Ninh Giang District Party Committee; Vuong Van Thanh (born in 1952, in La Xuyen area, Nam Sach town), war invalid, 51% body injury rate, with achievements during the revolutionary period; Tran Quang Luu (born in 1957, in An Binh commune, Nam Sach district), sick soldier, 61% body injury rate; Le Thi Xuan (born in 1940, in Thanh Hai commune, Thanh Ha), wife of a martyr; Nguyen Van Vien (born in 1949, in Sao Do ward, Chi Linh), war invalid, victim of toxic chemicals; Le Xuan Senh (born in 1941, in Duy Tan ward, Kinh Mon), Hero of the Armed Forces during the resistance war.

The above mentioned men and women are all people with merit, relatives of people with merit to the revolution, well implementing the policies and laws of the Party and State, and are exemplary in daily life.