(Adds Belarus foreign ministry, opposition, details) By David Brunnstrom BRUSSELS, March 28 (Reuters) - The European Union and the continent's biggest democracy forum urged Belarus on Friday to end a crackdown on protesters and journalists in the former Soviet republic. A statement from the Slovenian EU presidency condemned the use of violence on Tuesday against demonstrators opposed to President Alexander Lukashenko and called for the immediate release of those arrested. "In order to improve relations with the European Union, the Belarussian authorities should refrain from further arrests and stop persecuting the representatives of Belarussian civil society," the statement said. "The events of March 25 and the nationwide round-up of local journalists connected to foreign media, which started on March 27, are particularly worrisome." Security police raided Belarussian broadcasters' offices on Thursday and briefly held at least two reporters. Journalists' groups said new searches were conducted on Friday at the homes of two independent reporters in provincial cities. Belarus has long been condemned by the West for its human rights record, but has put out feelers in recent months for better ties with the EU. Relations are at rock bottom with the United States, which on Thursday called the government "a brutal, authoritarian dictatorship that blatantly ignores human rights and fundamental freedoms". Washington this month withdrew its ambassador from the ex-Soviet state at the urging of the government, which objected to what it saw as new U.S. sanctions against an energy firm. ENDING SANCTIONS Belarussian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov, speaking in Moscow, reissued a call for an end to all U.S. sanctions. "If that occurs, new steps can be undertaken in a completely different light," he said. In Minsk, leaders of Belarus's small liberal and nationalist opposition laid flowers along the route that Tuesday's banned protest was to have taken. They called a new rally for Sunday. In its statement, the EU said it hoped for "prompt and concrete steps" to allow for the improvement of ties with Belarus, a transit country for EU-bound Russian gas. The EU, it said, had taken note of the freeing of all internationally recognised political prisoners except one, Alexander Kozulin, and said his release "would enable the European Union to start engaging progressively with Belarus". The 56-nation Organisation for Security and Cooperation In Europe, a rights and democracy forum, said Belarus's conduct was "an unconcealed violation of OSCE commitments signed by the government of Belarus to protect freedom of the press". "The attempt to suppress independent media is unacceptable in a 21st century European society," Miklos Haraszti, OSCE media freedom watchdog, said in a statement issued in Vienna. (Additional reporting by Andrei Makhovsky in Minsk and Mark Heinrich in Vienna, editing by Mark Trevelyan)
Members of the 'Serb public league' display a poster of Russia's President Vladimir Putin and wave flags during a protest meeting against Kosovo's declaration of independence, and the signature for referendum ...
