Prime Minister pays working visit to DNA assessment units to identify the remains of fallen soldiers with missing information

The working session drew the participaton of Dao Ngoc Dung, Member of the Party Central Committee, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs; Prof. Acad. Chau Van Minh, member of the Central Committee of the Party, and President of VAST, and representatives of leaders of ministries, departments, branches, scientists, and assessors from research institutes.

Overview of the working session

The project "Identifying remains of fallen soldiers with missing information" (abbriated as Project 150) was approved by the Prime Minister in Decision 150/QD-TTg dated January 14, 2013, with a scale of 300,000 fallen soldiers' remains. The Government has decided to invest in building three centers for DNA assessment of fallen soldiers' remains at the Ministry of National Defense, the Ministry of Public Security and VAST. Since 2013, centers for DNA assessment of fallen soldiers' remains have received more than 38,000 samples of fallen soldiers' remains and biological samples of martyrs' relatives; and provided DNA analysis and storage for more than 23,000 samples. Up to now, more than 4,000 remains of fallen soldiers with missing information have been identified (2,761 cases by positivist method, 1,373 cases by DNA forensic method).

Besides the achieved results, the search, gathering and identification of fallen soldiers still faces many difficulties and challenges. The demand for identification of fallen soldiers is great while the capacity to respond is still limited; information, documents and witnesses about the fallen soldiers are less and less; the quality of the remains gradually decreases; many fallen soldiers' relatives died; the financial mechanism is inadequate; human resources are still inadequate; and the application of information technology, connecting and providing information to families is still limited.

VAST has always determined that the application of science and technology to the identification of missing fallen soldiers’ remains a key task. Since the late 1990s, scientists from the Institute of Biotechnology have approached the method of DNA identification in the study of identifying ancient and missing people in the world. Through each step of research and development, up to now, the Institute's scientists have fully mastered the DNA assessment technology, which is internationally recognized through scientific works published in prestigious international journals.

The Center for DNA Assessment, Institute of Biotechnology, was assigned by the Government to analyze DNA to identify samples of fallen soldiers' remains under Project 150. The center has modern facilities, including 10 clean rooms and equipment for processing remains and samples of relatives, technology research and development laboratories, sample storage areas, inspection/testing areas, standard server systems, next generation DNA sequencing systems. Since the establishment of the Center, VASS leaders have directed to perfect and apply techniques and methods to optimize mitochondrial DNA assessment processes, contributing to improving the quantity and quality of monitoring results. determined.

Since September 2019, the DNA Assessment Center has assessed 4,276 samples, of which 3,379 samples (~ 79%) have to be assessed 2-5 times. From 2019 to now, a total of 1,205 results have been successfully assessed and need to be paired with the database of relatives to identify fallen soldiers. In addition to the routine DNA examination, the Center always focuses on in-depth studies on the application of new technologies to the analysis of long-term remains in order to carry out the noble task of DNA examination of fallen soldiers' remains which are suitable to the conditions of Vietnam, thereby meeting the requirements of the people and the expectations of the Government.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh was touched by the image of a heroic Vietnamese mother in his hand.

Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh acknowledged and highly appreciated the efforts and achievements of ministries, branches, agencies and localities in the implementation of the Scheme, especially officials, scientists and employees who directly implement the task.
The Prime Minister said that “Our Party, State and people are always interested in the work of wounded and fallen soldiers; to alleviate that emotional pain by practical actions, including speeding up the search, gathering and identification of missing fallen soldiers' remains. This is an important political task, the responsibility of the entire Party, people and army. This is a very difficult and complicated task, requiring close coordination between ministries, branches, agencies and localities, the active support of organizations and individuals because so many martyrs from the anti-French period were sacrificed in many different areas both at home and abroad. Hundreds, thousands of fallen soldiers have returned to their families, but many families are waiting day and night for news of fallen soldiers. With all responsibility, affection and political determination, the search, gathering and identification of fallen soldiers' remains has been focused on in recent years."

Regarding proposals, the Prime Minister assigned ministries and branches to consider and handle, in which the Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs was assigned to assume the prime responsibility and coordinate with the Ministry of National Defense, VAST, the Ministry of Information and Communications to soon integrate, connect, compare and synchronize existing data to form the National Database on Fallen Soldiers, serving the DNA assessment of fallen soldiers' remains; assign VAST to develop a scheme on additional funding to strengthen, invest in new and modernize equipment for DNA assessment, in which clearly identify equipment that needs to be upgraded and invested in, and estimated funding to send to the Ministry of Planning and Investment, relevant ministries and agencies for consideration and handling;  assign VAST to actively coordinate with the Ministry of Science and Technology and relevant ministries and agencies to strictly implement regulations on recruitment and training of staff, especially highly qualified cadres, to ensure efficiency, meeting the requirements of this special mission of the unit; Assign the President of VAST to actively transfer and arrange the expected staff of the Institute of Biotechnology in the 2021-2026  period into organic human resources to supplement the operation of the DNA Assessment Center, ensure sufficient human resources for the DNA examination of the remains of fallen soldiers with insufficient information.

Also at the meeting, the Prime Minister gave gifts to 03 DNA assessment units and witnessed the announcement of the results of DNA assessment of fallen soldiers; together with representatives of ministries and agencies to give DNA assessment results to 12 families of fallen soldiers; giving savings worth 10 million VND/ saving and gifts to fallen soldiers' families.

Prime Minister presents gifts to 03 DNA assessment units

The Prime Minister and representatives of ministries and branches presented DNA examination results to 12 families of fallen soldiers; handing out savings books worth 10 million VND/book and gifts to families of fallen soldiers

The Prime Minister's delegation visited the laboratory system at the DNA Assessment Center, Institute of Biotechnology, Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology

Taking photograph

Translated by Tuyet Nhung
Link to Vietnamese version