At a working session with the Australian Army's Unrecovered War Casualties Unit in Canberra on November 24, Minh, member of the national steering committee for the search, repatriation and identification of martyrs’ remains (Steering Committee 515), said Viet Nam still has around 175,000 cases of fallen soldiers whose remains have yet to be located or verified. He stressed that this remains a pressing humanitarian issue for Viet Nam, though the work has become increasingly difficult over time.
He proposed that Australia share its experience and apply advanced technologies in research, data aggregation, investigation, classification, extraction of information, and the preservation of records to support Viet Nam’s efforts to search for and repatriate the remains of its fallen soldiers.
Dr. Aaron Pegram, manager of the Australian Army's Unrecovered War Casualties Unit, affirmed the country’s commitment to working more effectively with Viet Nam in this effort, contributing to the further development of bilateral ties.
The same day, the Vietnamese delegation visited and worked with the Australian War Memorial. Minh requested the memorial to extract information from its archives related to Vietnamese soldiers who died, went missing or remain unaccounted for, and provide it to the Office of Viet Nam’s Steering Committee 515.
He also asked the memorial to promote communication and encourage Australian organisations and individuals to gather and share information, documents and wartime memorabilia related to Vietnamese martyrs and their burial sites, in support of Viet Nam’s ongoing search and identification efforts.
