Hanoi (VNS/VNA) -The 20-year resistance war against America left nearly 850,000 Vietnamesesoldiers dead and at least 300,000 of them may never be identified and returnedto their living relatives.

In the decades after the war ended in 1975, the absence of physical traces ofthe dead has driven many families across the country to desperation, seekinghelp from the most dubious of sources: mediums who claim they can communicatewith the underworld and ask spirits to point to the location of their remains.

In the last few years, with genetic analysis becoming more accessible andwidely known, the scientific approach to identifying the remains of war martyrshas gained traction.

However, the process is difficult and time-consuming according to Professor Le DinhLuong, the founder of Centre for Genetic Analysis and Technology (CGAT), theleading centre where families can come to verify remains, either by documentresearch or through personal belongings on the remains.

Within four hours, the results of DNA analysis are available, however, theverification of a body may take a week.

“For the living, DNA testing can be done fairly easily with DNA samples takenfrom the nucleus of the cells of a person’s hair, blood, toenails or fingernails,”Luong said.

“However, in the case of the dead, because all other flesh parts of the bodyhave decayed, we need to sequence mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) extracted from,most of the time, teeth, dried hair and bones of the dead, which takes muchmore time.”

To complicate the matter, not any tooth or piece of bone is usable – ideally,the tooth must have its root relatively intact, i.e. hard and bright-coloured(not blackened or totally decayed), and the bones must be from the arms orlegs.

Cleaning samples is also not easy, requiring six to seven specialised types ofmachines, doing everything from ultrasound scanning, polishing, drying topasteurising.

Sequencing the mtDNA, the main process, requires even more state-of-the-artmachines to ensure accurate analysis.

“After obtaining the results of the sample, we must first check it with thegenetic make-up of all the people who have entered the lab from the moment thesample is received, because just one sneeze could contaminate the sample.”

Nguyen Xuan Hung, head of CGAT’s analysis lab, said despite the time and effortgoing into the process, the matching rate is only 20 percent, as samplecollection of remains in Vietnam faces many hurdles.

The leading, and most frustrating, reason is that due to the humid and hotweather of a tropical country, the body decays really fast. Many familiestravelled a long distance just to return home empty-handed because there wasalmost no trace of DNA left in the samples of the remains they brought.

The lack of documentation and missing records from the war also lead toconfusion.

“In a case I remembered, this family brought here three different samples butnone of them belong to their dead relatives,” Professor Luong said.

“In addition, the war was the most devastating one in Vietnamese history. Asingle bomb dropped could mean an entire unit was wiped out, and in war-timewhere burial was mostly hastily, mislabelling or sketchy records were common.Even sadder, a single grave might contain different body parts from manydifferent people,” he added.

Even though his work is DNA testing, Professor Luong insisted that the largesum of money spent on this time-consuming, costly and most of the times, futileexpenditure should be spent elsewhere.

“The resources should be poured into building a database of war martyrs whereinformation could be accessed easily. And instead of trying to identifyremains, let’s support the families, the grieving wives and mothers who areliving in hard conditions, it’s just much more practical,” he said.-VNS/VNA