In Nam Dan district, around 20km from Vinh City, five centers seeking lost tombs of martyrs opened in three months. At the same time, four centers are set up in Hung Nguyen district. Other centers opened in other districts.

Most of these centers use the same method: using “telepaths” to force the souls of martyrs to “enter” someone in the martyrs’ families, through which the souls guide their families to their lost tombs.

According to these families, when “telepaths” made séances, souls of martyrs “entered” their relatives to talk and show the places of their tombs, make requests of the time for collecting their remains as well as the place for burying.

However, not all families can easily “talk” with souls of martyrs. Some families have to attend séances for weeks.

In other provinces like Ha Tinh and Ha Nam, dozens of such centers opened in the first half of 2011, attracting hundreds of families of martyrs.

The Ministry of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs met with related provinces to discuss this phenomenon. Bui Nguyen Lan, director of the Department of Labor, War Invalids and Social Affairs of Nghe An province says that seeking lost remains of martyrs by this method can help solve psychological pressure for martyrs’ families, particularly martyrs’ parents, who are very old and weak now. However, there are evidences for seeking benefit from this method at telepathy centres and some other consequences.

According to Nghe An authorities, the operation of telepathy centres causes security and order, environment, physical and mental health as economic losses for martyrs’ families. Specifically, telepathy centers collect illegal kinds of fees. Séances attract the participation of many people, most of them at the working age, while séances can take place for 5-30 days, even over 40 days for some cases. It is costly to seek tombs this way. Some families have to mortgage their assets or borrow money.

“Especially, 13 people incurred mental illness after they returned from telepathy centres,” Lan says.

The authorities of Ha Tinh province say that seeking lost tombs by telepathy is not new but it has spread at un-abnormal speed. Moreover, most of the found remains are not proved to be martyr remains or not.

The authorities of related provinces say that they are confused in controlling these centers because of lacking scientific basis while many people believe in this method.

According to MoLISA, the remains of around 650,000 soldiers are still missing. Of the number, around 350,000 unknown remains are buried at thousands of martyr cemeteries in the country.

Vietnamnet.vn