USAID Completes Unidentified Remains Project

Thursday, September 28, 2017

Last week, USAID held a close-out event for the Unidentified Remains Project. USAID has been working with the U.S. Department of Justice’s International Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) and eight public and private Vietnamese laboratories to implement this activity. The goal of the Unidentified Remains Project has been to help Vietnamese laboratories improve their ability to conduct sophisticated DNA analysis to identify the remains of Vietnamese civilians and soldiers on both sides of the conflict killed during the Vietnam War. Apart from purchasing sophisticated DNA laboratory equipment for the participating laboratories, there were over 16 exchanges between Vietnamese scientists and international experts. In some laboratories, positive DNA matches improved from 60 to 80 percent thanks to these exchanges and trainings. So What? As USAID works to address war legacies in Vietnam, activities like this advance the U.S.-Vietnam partnership.