Omaha daily bee., 1917-10-15
Returned Missionary Tells OF
Hideous Atrocities Committed
in Recent Invasion Of the
Holy Land.

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New York, Oct. 14.-Burial alive o.
babies in trenches with the bodies o.
their mothers, who had beer slaugh
tered or allowed to perish from ex
posure, was practiced by the Turks
in their work of exterminating the
Armenians, it was declared here to-
day by the Rev, Henry H. Riggs, mis-,
sionary of the American Board OF
Commissioners for Foreign Missions
to Harput, Turkey, who recently came
back to this country. A trench was
dug beside camp of Armenian wom-
en-, he said, and as they met death
the survivors were forced to drag their
bodies to it and bury them. y
"The gendarmes said they could not
take care of the babies that were left
behind so many of these were buried
with their mothers" DR.. Riggs said.
when | visited this camp / frequent
ly saw Turks wandering about among
the Armenians picking out pretty girls
and little children to take away to
their homes. Some mothers told us
that they had themselves thrown
their babies into the Euphrates river
rather than allow them to be taken
to Moslem homes. Many more threw
themselves into the river to escape a
bondage worse than death.
10000 Bodies in Twenty Miles.
about fifteen miles from Harput is
a lake hidden from sight with many
ravines about it. We were told that
the Armenian exiles were being killed
and left in these ravines. The Ameri-
cans investigated and brought home
photographs and actual facts. They
say III twenty-mile ride 10000 hui
man bodies, most of them killed by
the bayonet. With few exceptions
they were women and children and
the mangled condition of their bodies
showed the horrible fate that had
been theirs"
The story of the deportation of the
Armenians of Harput is one of per
fdy, violence and murder" DR.. Riggs
went on, adding, 1T is nearer to the
truth to say the Turkish government
undertook the extinction Of the Ar
menian population" After the issue
of an edict for all Armenians to go
to Mesopotania, he said, there came
the arrest of all the mend of standing.
Hideous Death.
"They were sent out on the road
tied together in groups of two to
fve," he said, driven and beaten by
the gendarmes. Of the first party of
800 ,one young man survived to tell
the story of what happened. The party
was taken into ravine and ordered
to sit down, he told US. Then the gen
darmes climbed up on the surround
ing rocks and fired their rifles into
the crowd of bound prisoners as long
as they showed signs of life.
"The man who told us the story
succeeded in getting his knife and
cutting himself loose. AS he made his
dask for liberty he was followed by
voley of shots, but got away un-
scathed. All the other men of that
and similar parties were ruthlessly
butchered.
"The women and children were then
started on the road toward Mesopo-
tamia in companies of 1000 or 5000.
By indirect routes they were forced
to wander about until the summer
heat and disease wasted away the
majority. No transportation was pro-
vided. | saw one old man, who had
travelled 200 miles, start out to go
the remaining $50 miles carrying on
on his back his pack of quilts and
clothes and on top of that his aged,
palsied wife, who could not walk,
Perich From Thirst.
"Often the routes chosen took the
people over waterless deserts where
thousands perished from thirst |
passed through such region where
thousands of bleached skeletons each
side the way told the story of water
less journey across the plains in Au-
gust.
THE people who passed through
Harput from the north usually spent
two or three days in camp within
sight of my home. The sights we
saw there never can be forgotten.
They were absolutely without shelter.
day or night, from heat or cold. The
air was unspeakably foul from dead
Continued on Pags Two. Column OneJ