Renovating and expanding Vi Xuyen martyrs cemetery

The resting place of thousands of martyrs protecting the northern border will be expanded from 2 hectares to 10 hectares.

On September 9, Minister of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs Dao Ngoc Dung and leaders of Ha Giang province came to burn incense to commemorate the heroic martyrs at Vi Xuyen martyrs cemetery. The delegation of the Ministry of Labor and provincial leaders surveyed the field, discussed upgrading and expanding the cemetery as well as searching for and gathering martyrs' remains here.

Minister Dao Ngoc Dung, Ha Giang Party Secretary Trieu Tai Vinh and Provincial Chairman Nguyen Van Son offered incense to commemorate martyrs at Vi Xuyen cemetery. Photo: PX

Mr. Nguyen Xuan Hung, Deputy Director of the Ha Giang Department of Construction, informed that in the coming time, the province will expand the cemetery from more than 2 hectares to 10 hectares with many items, which can welcome more than 4,000 martyrs to rest. This is the largest project among 10 cemeteries in the area, with 1,734 graves of martyrs who sacrificed their lives in the war to protect the northern border. Due to limited space, Vi Xuyen cemetery has run out of waiting graves, so it has to ask the province to build more to welcome martyrs to gather from the beginning of the year.

Currently, Ha Giang is facing difficulties in searching for martyrs' remains. Colonel Duong Hong Vinh, Deputy Political Commissar of the Provincial Military Command, said that martyrs' remains are mainly located in valleys, forest edges, and ravines with a fairly large area of ​​over 80,000 hectares, complex terrain, and too many bomb and mine sites and explosives. Since 2012, search teams have collected 41 sets of remains, but there are still about 2,000 martyrs' remains that have not been collected.

"With the current method, only about 200 hectares of land contaminated with bombs and mines can be cleaned each year. The remaining area is very large and it will take several decades to complete," said Colonel Vinh.

The working group discussed plans to renovate and expand Vi Xuyen martyrs' cemetery. Photo: PX

Minister Dao Ngoc Dung said he supports the province's policy of renovating and embellishing cemeteries, especially continuing to search for and collect martyrs' remains. He suggested that Ha Giang should research and establish a separate project, speed up the progress of mine and explosive clearance to quickly collect remains. The longer it takes, the more difficult the search becomes, making the martyrs' relatives uneasy.

"This is a matter of great concern to the Ministry of National Defense and the Ministry of Labor. The restoration and upgrading of cemeteries must be calculated and designed harmoniously, ensuring solemnity and convenience for relatives, people, and comrades to visit, becoming a project to educate the tradition of patriotism for the next generation," said Mr. Dung.

During the Northern border war, Ha Giang was the first to confront and the last to escape the war. To maintain the border, 9 main divisions and many regiments and battalions of Vietnamese troops directly participated in the battle at Vi Xuyen front. More than 4,000 officers and soldiers were sacrificed.

According to VNE