Increasing repatriation of Vietnamese martyrs' remains from Cambodia

During the meeting, Senior Lieutenant-General Le Chiem, Deputy Minister of National Defence and Head of the Vietnamese Governments’ Special Working Committee, appreciated the effective direction of the Cambodian Government’s Special Working Committee in coordinating with the Vietnamese side in seeking and repatriating Vietnamese martyrs’ remains from Cambodia.

In the 2016-2017 dry season, authorized agencies of the two countries worked together to repatriate the remains of 758 martyrs.

General Pol Saroun, Chief of the General Staff of the Cambodian Royal Army and Head of the Cambodian Government’s Special Working Committee, confirmed that Cambodia would work with Vietnam in seeking and repatriating Vietnamese martyrs’ remains, contributing to building up and reinforcing the cooperative and friendly relationship between the two countries.

The two Committees also agreed to cooperate with each other to seek Vietnamese martyrs’ remains until there is no information left about martyrs remaining buried there.

Accordingly, they will continue to direct localities and agencies to encourage people to give information about martyrs’ graves, and units carrying out activities in Cambodia to hand over the list and maps of martyrs’ graves for seeking and repatriating Vietnamese martyrs.

There are still in Cambodia the buried remains of Vietnamese volunteers and experts who sacrificed their lives during wars. The repatriation of their remains is difficult due to limited information about the locations of the graves, while most of the graves are in complicated terrain.

During the meeting, the Vietnamese Government’s Special Working Committee presented capital to the Cambodian side to support the seeking and repatriation of Vietnamese martyrs’ sets of remains in the 2017-2018 dry season./.