Prime Minister Pham Minh Chinh speaks at the meeting in HCM City on July 27. (Photo: VNA)

The Ministry of National Defence reported the search for and repatriation of martyrs’ remains have recorded good results, and that the teams have also fruitfully carried out mass mobilisation, military diplomacy and people-to-people diplomacy, helping to enhance Vietnam’s traditional friendship with Laos and Cambodia.

PM Chinh said the entire Party, people and army are holding a number of meaningful activities to commemorate and honour veteran revolutionaries, heroes, martyrs, war invalids and revolution controbutors who devoted themselves for the sake of the Fatherland’s independence, freedom and prosperity.

He noted searching for remains of martyrs is a humane deed and also a demonstration of the gratitude to former generations, adding it is the responsibility of the entire political system, all-level administrations, sectors, and localities.

The teams were assigned to search for and repatriate remains of military soldiers who laid down their lives in not only Vietnam but also in Laos and Cambodia.

With hundreds of thousands of martyrs yet to be found, this is a very heavy but also highly glorious duty, according to the Government leader.

Braving numerous difficulties, the teams found and retrieved more than 84,000 sets of martyrs’ remains since 1994. Among them, nearly 18,000 sets of remains have been recovered since 2013, including nearly 9,000 in Vietnam, over 6,000 in Cambodia, and nearly 3,000 others in Laos. Reburial ceremonies have also been organised solemnly.

Highly valuing the teams and related parties’ achievements, the PM said the search and repatriation continues to be a constant and long-term task, but it will face more difficulties since there is still a large number of remains yet to be found while information about martyrs and graves is decreasing, many witnesses are becoming older and losing their memory, and terrains of old battlefields have changed much.

He asked authorities, sectors, localities and the teams to push ahead with performing the task as well as military diplomacy in the neighbouring countries and mass mobilisation.

Searching for and repatriating martyrs’ remains is not only a responsibility but also an “order from the heart”, he emphasised, expressing his belief that the teams will excellently fulfill their duty to meet expectations from the people and martyrs’ families.