EU warns Belarus of "strong reaction" to violence

BRUSSELS, Mar 17 (Reuters) The European Union told Belarus today that any violence against peaceful demonstrators would trigger a ''strong international reaction'', its starkest warning yet to Minsk before Sunday's election.

''The use of violence on peaceful demonstrators exercising their indisputable right of freedom of expression and assembly would meet with a strong international reaction,'' EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in a statement.

The statement said Solana was reacting to a warning by Belarussian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov to EU ambassadors in Minsk yesterday that the responsibility for consequences of any mass disorder would lie with the opposition and governments that had supported it.

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