PRISTINA — Hundreds of ethnic Serbs rallied in Kosovo on Sunday as a dispute over vehicle license plates heightened ongoing tensions between Belgrade and Pristina.

The government’s decision to gradually ban Serbia-issued license plates has angered Kosovo Serbs, most of whom live in the north of the country and do not recognize Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence.

The Kosovo PM Albin Kurti’s demand that the police begin to issue warnings to those who continued to use Belgrade-issued license plates led members of the ethnic Serb minority to leave their government jobs on Saturday in a protest over the directive.

During Sunday’s protest in the northern Kosovo Serb-majority municipality of North Mitrovica, Serb political leaders said the police officers, judges and other public employees would not return to their jobs unless Kosovo’s government reversed its license plate policy. — Euronews