The Afghan government payments were the equivalent of $2,000 each, more than most Afghan workers could earn in several years. But Mahmoud Gul Mohammed, balancing 1-year-old Dawajan in his lap, was a portrait of desolation. His wife had been killed, along with a second son, and his home destroyed, he said. Even his cow and three sheep were dead.
"I don't see how the West or the government can bring us peace," he said, cradling his son, who was wearing tattered trousers and a tunic secured with a safety pin.
When Dawajan reached for a dirty baby bottle, the father fumblingly mixed a batch of sugared water and fed it to him.
He hoped to use his condolence money to arrange another marriage, he said, because he did not know how to care for an infant.
Seeing the eyes of two foreign visitors on him, he looked up hopefully.
"Do you want this child?" he asked.
Evidence fades away
No one predicts a full accounting of what happened in Garani.
The U.S. military said its inquiry, a forensic-style examination of everything from flight logs to radio transmissions from the field, could take weeks more. American officials have advanced the theory that the Taliban killed large numbers of villagers with grenades, infuriating local people who describe buildings clearly blown apart by far larger external blasts.
The International Committee of the Red Cross, the only independent outside group to have reached the village, has not yet released its findings. A United Nations delegation was unable to secure a military escort to the scene last week because travel was deemed too dangerous.
Local people said they wanted outside observers to see the destruction, but even with Afghanistan's unbending tradition of personal hospitality, tribal elders warned that they could not guarantee any visitor's safety. Drivers in Farah City refused to venture any farther in the direction of Garani than the village of Qale Zaman, about six miles outside the city.
Meanwhile, under the scorching desert sun, traces of evidence fade away daily. The dead have been buried. And in all likelihood, the Taliban of Bala Baluk will be back.
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laura.king@latimes.com
