Lao Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Welfare Baikham Khattiya speaks during a completion ceremony of the repair project at the Chinese martyrs cemetery in Xieng Khuang province, Laos, on June 7, 2017. (Xinhua/Liu Ailun)
After six-month construction, a completion ceremony of the repair project was held at the Chinese martyrs cemetery in northern Laos' Xieng Khuang province on Wednesday.
Wang Jianjun, standing deputy director of the National Working Committee on Aging and a party committee member of China's Civil Affairs Ministry, said that the Chinese martyrs cemetery in Laos is an important carrier witnessing and inheriting the friendship between the two countries. The Chinese and Lao builders have striven to reach effective cooperation, successfully completed the Chinese martyrs cemetery renovation project in Xieng Khuang.
Wang hoped that both sides endeavor to promote the protection and management of the commemorative facilities in the Chinese martyrs cemetery, effectively build an immortal monument to cherish heroes and maintain peace in the hearts of hundreds of millions of Lao and Chinese people.
Lao Deputy Minister of Labor and Social Welfare Baikham Khattiya said that the ceremony of the repair project has been completed and "we have a great responsibility to make the martyrs cemetery into a historical education base, and a historical tourist destination to deepen the friendship between the two countries in the future."
In the struggle to support the Laos people in the 1960s and 1970s, hundreds of Chinese martyrs heroically sacrificed their lives to fulfill the noble, sacred internationalist mission. At present, 215 Chinese martyrs who assisted Laos were buried in three Chinese martyrs' cemeteries in Laos, mainly in Oudomxai province and Xieng Khuang province.
Xieng Khuang Chinese martyrs cemetery was built in 1996. In September 2016, with an agreement signed, the Lao Chinese martyrs cemetery repair protection project was fully launched. Before being repaired, Xieng Khuang Chinese martyrs cemetery covered an area of 914 square meters. After the expansion it became an area of 3,475 square meters with facilities complete and functional.
