Vietnam PM attends funeral for 731 war dead in Ho Chi Minh City

Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra and representatives of central government agencies also attended the ceremony.

Ho Chi Minh City was represented by Party Secretary Tran Luu Quang, municipal People’s Committee chairman Nguyen Van Duoc and other local officials.

More than 300 delegates, including former senior Party and state officials, war veterans, community representatives and young people, gathered at Le Thi Rieng Park early in the morning, lining up outside the ceremony area. Thousands of local residents also attended.

In the early hours of the day, Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra joined leaders from the Ministry of National Defence and the municipal government at a prayer ceremony for the fallen soldiers whose remains had been recovered from mass graves across the park over the previous four months.

At 7.30 am, delegates laid flowers and offered incense at the monument to former Party General Secretary Tran Phu, the martyrs’ memorial stele and other commemorative sites in Le Thi Rieng Cultural Park.

After the memorial service, a convoy was scheduled to transport the remains from the park to Ho Chi Minh City Martyrs’ Cemetery along a route of about 26km, passing through Truong Son, Cach Mang Thang Tam and Dien Bien Phu streets, Saigon Bridge, Vo Nguyen Giap Street and Hanoi Highway.

The search and recovery operation at Le Thi Rieng Park was launched on July 6 following the conclusion of Deputy Prime Minister Pham Thi Thanh Tra at a workshop verifying information about a mass grave of martyrs in the area.

Earlier, based on witness accounts and historical records, the Ho Chi Minh City Command estimated that hundreds of martyrs killed during the 1968 Tet Offensive and Uprising may have been buried in Do Thanh - Chi Hoa cemetery, now Le Thi Rieng Park.