The Balkan conflict came to suburban New York on Sunday as hundreds of ethnic Albanian immigrants signed up for the Kosovo Liberation Army.
In a Yonkers hotel car-park, greying veterans of the Bosnian conflict stood to attention with teenage girls, their new camouflaged fatigues and black caps bearing the insignia of the UCK, the Albanian name for the separatist army. Restaurant owners had signed up with students to fight overseas with the 300-member Battalion Atlantic which was scheduled to fly into Albania by the beginning of this week, organisers said. "This is for freedom. I served for four years with the US Marine Corps, and I'm going to use that against the Serbs," said Sadik Kukaj (28), who was born in the Bronx.
In a city that is a patchwork of immigrant communities, the NATO air strikes have mobilised both New York's Serbian and Albanian communities. Soon after the bombings began, they faced off behind police barricades on Manhattan's 42nd Street for rallies of flag-waving and patriotic chanting.
While Albanians have directed their anger regularly at the Serb UN mission, Serbian immigrants have protested at NATO's actions and what they consider the biased US media coverage of the war.
At a recent rally in Manhattan, Predrag Rajkovic, a Serbian immigrant, said three of his cousins were Serb police and an uncle had been killed by the KLA.
Television images of refugees have sparked a flurry of activity and fund-raising among New York's 300,000 Albanian immigrants. Food drives began as soon as the refugee crisis became apparent, said Avni Mustafaj, who runs the Kosovo Relief Fund out of a midtown Manhattan restaurant. Within a week, the group had 25 containers of food ready to be shipped.
But after hearing stories from relatives in the Balkans, many here now support the KLA, said Kosovan immigrant Florin Krasniqi of Homeland Calling, the rebel army's fund-raising arm. Albanian business leaders and families have donated millions of dollars and recruitment drives through local radio media in Albanian enclaves brought a flood of volunteers, Mr Krasniqi said. Many of Sunday's volunteers like Isa Komani (20) said they could not bear the images of suffering and the desperate family phone calls. "We're willing to die for it," he said. "It's not that hard to do."