Vietnam

Estimates of the number of Vietnamese killed in the 1955-75 conflict range from 966,000 to 3.8 million. In addition, between 275,000 and 310,000 Cambodians lost their lives, as did between 20,000 and 62,000 Laotians and 58,220 U.S. military personnel, with an additional 1,626 U.S. military personnel being reported missing in action. 

After the war, the state expended substantial resources to recover and bury the remains of more than 900,000 fallen soldiers. The remains of at least 200,000 persons are believed to be in anonymous or unknown gravesites. In Vietnamese culture, the dead have a right to assistance from the living in order to complete their journey to a new spiritual existence. The renewed effort of Vietnam to locate and identify the remains of missing persons for appropriate burial and commemoration has a continuing societal relevance.

The Government of Vietnam has made the task of locating the wartime missing a priority, and it has recognized opportunities in advanced DNA testing capabilities. The two principal challenges are the degradation of human remains, especially bones, and a lack of close family relatives whose DNA can be used for kinship DNA matching.

ICMP is working with Vietnamese scientists to test and optimize new methods for DNA extraction and testing (nuclear short tandem repeat (STR) as well as single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)) of a sizeable number of relevant bone samples from the Vietnamese context.

ICMP is also working with the relevant institutions in Vietnam to develop an effective and appropriate data management strategy and a strategy for the engagement of civil society and families, in order to ensure that there is trust, understanding and cooperation in a rule-of-law based missing persons process.