The Tuần Giáo Martyrs’ Cemetery was selected for advance deployment in the “500-day-and-night Campaign to boost searching, gathering, and identifying martyrs’ remains” across the province. Executing the campaign, the Tuần Giáo commune People’s Committee established a working group comprising 6 cadres, headed by the commune People’s Committee Vice Chairman, while establishing a commune-level team serving the provincial Steering Board for collecting martyrs’ remains samples encompassing sections for command and management, policy and dossiers, military medicine and sampling techniques, grave excavation and restoration, security and safety command, alongside requisitioned forces.

Nguyễn Quyết Thắng, Vice Chairman of the Tuần Giáo commune People’s Committee, noted that to coordinate sampling organization for graves lacking information, Tuần Giáo commune issued a specific plan defining targets, progress schedules, participating forces, and responsibilities for each agency and unit, requiring tight synergy among military, health, police, and specialized division forces to guarantee every workflow - from excavation, sampling, data digitization, preservation, sample handover, to grave surface restoration - is executed under regulations without permitting errors. To date, the commune coordinated to complete sampling, handover, and information digitization for 117 out of 128 graves, with 11 graves ineligible for sampling.

Coordinating execution of the “500-day-and-night campaign to boost searching, gathering, and identifying martyrs’ remains,” the health sector dispatched specialized cadres to join sampling directly, receiving, preserving, and storing remains samples under regulations while guaranteeing full medical conditions serving field operations.

The Department of Health proactively issued deployment documents, directing units to allocate adequate doctors, nurses, ambulances, medicines, supplies, and equipment, while dispatching 7 specialized cadres to participate directly in the provincial Steering Board’s Working Group for sampling, preservation, transport, and handover following correct technical workflows, with the Provincial Forensic Center assigned as the focal point to receive, manage, and preserve all martyrs’ remains samples.

As a cadre directly executing field duties, Nguyễn Đỗ Chuẩn from the Hospital of Traditional Medicine and Rehabilitation under the provincial Department of Health shared that sampling requires devotion, meticulousness, and perseverance because certain biological samples retain merely a few millimeters of bone while others decayed after many years, adding that forensic personnel strive to preserve every ray of hope behind which lies decades of weary waiting by martyrs’ families and relatives.

Evaluating coordination among units during campaign deployment, Senior Colonel Dương Quốc Long, Deputy Political Commissar of the provincial Military Command, stated that Điện Biên province holds a relatively large number of martyrs’ graves requiring identification, reaching up to 4,594 graves, noting that multiple renovations resulted in varying grave structures - with certain graves renovated repeatedly reaching depths over 3 meters that complicate sampling - yet high determination enabled the provincial Military Command to coordinate proactively with units and localities to fulfill assigned tasks well.

As of August 2, 2026, the 500-day-and-night campaign across the province deployed in 5 out of 7 cemeteries, with eligible sample counts reaching 2,088 out of 2,136 collected samples, handing over 1,822 samples to the Forensic Institute. Among these, the Tuần Giáo and Tủa Chùa commune Martyrs’ Cemeteries completed sampling, handover, and information digitization for 119 samples across 133 graves, while working groups at the Him Lam, Tông Khao, and Độc Lập Martyrs’ Cemeteries continue urgent deployment, excavating and sampling 45 to 50 graves daily with careful procedures to guarantee sample quality for DNA testing.

The 500-day-and-night campaign continues urgent execution by units and local authorities with high effort, as initial results demonstrate responsible coordination among forces alongside the devotion of field cadres, kindling hope daily for numerous families and martyrs’ relatives to welcome their loved ones home.