Gia Lai Completes DNA Sampling of Nearly 12,000 Unidentified War Graves

Military teams in Vietnam’s Gia Lai province have finished collecting DNA samples from nearly 12,000 graves of unidentified martyrs, opening the next stage in efforts to locate their families.

Colonel Vo Tan Tai, political commissar of the Gia Lai Military Command, said on Sept. 4 that excavation teams had completed sampling at 113 cemeteries across the province. The work covered 11,976 graves whose occupants had not yet been identified, in 65 communes and wards.

The final samples are expected to be urgently handed over to the Military Forensic Institute. There, specialists will analyze the material and build data to support the search for relatives of those who died.

The teams also found artifacts and information linked to martyrs in several graves. The military command said it had publicly released all of that information to help families continue their searches.

After completing the cemetery sampling, Team K52 departed on Sept. 4 for the 2026-2027 dry-season mission to search for and repatriate the remains of Vietnamese volunteer soldiers and experts who died in a neighboring country.

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The final samples are expected to be urgently handed over to the Military Forensic Institute.