Kosovo Serbs will no longer be able to use their old car registration numbers, obtained before the country’s independence from Serbia, from Friday, a decision that has been delayed several times as it sparked the worst ethnic violence in two years in the former Serb province, Reuters and news agencies .ro reported on Saturday.

Backed by Belgrade, some 50,000 ethnic Serbs living in the north of the country refuse to recognize Kosovo as an independent state and use license plates registered before 1999, when the former province was part of Serbia.

The Kosovo government announced that the law expired at midnight on Friday, and all drivers with old license plates would be fined and their cars confiscated. The government has delayed the decision several times to allow drivers to get new license plates.

Police said that of the 10,000 cars owned by Kosovo Serbs in the north of the country, about 4,200 have new license plates issued by the Kosovo authorities, while many others have registered their cars in Serbia and are authorized to use them in Kosovo.

“Today we no longer see cars with old number plates on the road,” Veton Elshani, deputy chief of Kosovo’s northern police, told Reuters. “I told the police that in the next two days they should only warn the drivers, and from Monday we will fine them or even confiscate their vehicles,” the official said.

The introduction of a new license plate rule was the main reason why Serbs left all institutions in Kosovo in 2022, such as municipalities, police and courts in the northern region. This year saw the worst violence in the region since Kosovo declared independence in 2008, culminating in an attack by armed Serbs on police in the village of Banska in September, which left one policeman and three gunmen dead.