The death toll is still being tallied. So far, NATO and the U.S. have shown no interest in this conflict. Diplomats based in Albania are complaining that truckloads of aid intended for the Kosovo refugees is being intercepted by local mafia groups and sold on the black market. There are areas where local authorities and the mafia melt into one. Two years ago, the local populations of northern and southern Albania rioted against the central government and stole over a million light weapons from military barracks.
Entire regions are now under the control of mafia clans.
The problem is so bad that several palettes of supplies dropped by U.S. Air Force helicopters have been stolen out from under the noses of U.S. ground personnel. More than 50,000 people demonstrated in the German capital of Bonn on April 17th in support of the release of Kurdish rebel leader Abdullah Ocalan . The Kurds, promised a homeland early this century, have been fighting the governments of Turkey, Syria, and Iraq for an independent state off an on throughout this century. Abdullah Ocalan, who was forcibly extradited from Kenya in February and sent to a Turkish prison, has been charged with treason and the death of all 37,000 people killed in the war. The Turkish government is seeking the death penalty for him.