Several veterans have devoted their entire lives to tending the final resting place of war martyrs in central Quang Tri province, and have been steadfast in the combat against tomb raiding.

There are a number of silent tomb tenders in Quang Tri province, which is home to 72 war martyr cemeteries.

One of them is Ho Xuan Thanh, 58, who has spent 34 years taking care of the Hai Thuong commune war martyrs’ cemetery in Hai Lang district. With some 2,000 war martyrs’ tombs, the cemetery is one of the province’s largest graveyards.

Thanh joined the army in 1977 when he was 21 years old. After serving on the Cambodian battlefield for three years, he returned to civilian life in his hometown.

He was soon assigned with taking care of the cemetery, which was home to some hundreds of tombs back then. He struggled to make ends meet with farm work and didn’t receive a monthly allowance of VND150,000 (US$7) for taking care of the cemetery until 2006.

The local government only pays for incense on special holidays, but Thanh uses his own money to buy more so that the cemetery is always fragrant and the martyrs’ souls are kept warm all year round. He often spends all day at the graveyard, particularly during holidays and Tet, when few relatives visit the deceased soldiers.

“The place is home to the martyrs, who are also my comrades. They need a clean and cozy home just as we do. I’ll continue with this job until I’m too old and frail to walk,” Thanh shared.

He even put a large water tank beneath the monument so that the deceased soldiers can “have a drink” during the hot season.

The post-war fight

Meanwhile, in Cam Lo district, Cap Kim Xinh has also spent more than 25 years tending the war martyrs’ cemetery in Cam Chinh commune. A veteran of the Vietnam War, he began his work as caretaker of the graveyard in 1988.

Despite financial difficulties and the amount of time he must spend taking care of his child, who is immobile due to exposure to Agent Orange, he spends several hours at the cemetery every day.

He received a scanty allowance of VND20,000 ($1) from 1988 to 2007 and now gets VND200,000 a month. But the elderly veteran said that he would still do the job for no pay at all, as he considers the graveyard his second home.

The Vietnam War veteran has been engaged in another fierce combat against tomb raiders in recent years. Several fraudulent self-proclaimed psychics have duped war martyrs’ relatives, who are desperately in search of their remains, into hiring people to steal bodies buried in unidentified tombs.

Dozens of unidentified tombs in Xinh’s cemetery have been raided over the past 26 years. He has fought back and even risked his own life to protect the soldiers’ remains.

“I won’t let them take the soldiers’ remains away unless they have clear evidence, as the soldiers’ spirits will get lost once more. But if they can provide the evidence, I’ll even help them transport the remains to their homes,” Xinh shared.

Once in 2011, Xinh found four men digging up the tomb of a deceased soldier. They bribed him with VND10 million ($500), but he adamantly refused the money. The men then attacked him with sticks and chased him around the cemetery, but he refused to leave. Luckily, villagers heard his cries and came to his aid. The tomb raiders soon left.