According to the Ho Chi Minh City High Command, search and recovery operations resumed in Le Thi Rieng Park after a ceremony on October 14 to commemorate and bury 731 sets of soldiers’ remains found at the site.
On October 15, the teams recovered eight additional sets of remains and three sets of artefacts. The cumulative total recovered between June 23 and the end of October 15 reached 739 sets of remains.
Authorities recover martyrs' remains at Le Thi Rieng Park (Photo: Nguyen Hung).
The teams also moved more than 300 cubic metres of soil that day as they expanded the search area. The Ho Chi Minh City High Command deployed three excavators, one dump truck and two 3.5-tonne trucks to support excavation and soil transport and keep the operation on schedule.
On October 14, the city held a ceremony to pay tribute to, commemorate and bury the 731 sets of remains recovered from Le Thi Rieng Park. All were reburied at the Ho Chi Minh City Martyrs’ Cemetery.
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.