The Catholic Archbishop of Minsk said Monday that Belarusian border guards refused him entry without explanation, as the Church has condemned police violence against opposition protesters calling for new elections. The press secretary for the Belarusian Catholic Church, Yury Sanko, told AFP that Archbishop Tadeusz Kondrusiewicz, a Belarusian citizen, was returning from Poland after holidaying there. "He doesn't understand what happened on the border, they didn't explain to him the reasons for such actions," Sanko said. "Here in Belarus we are now trying to deal with this situation." The archbishop had called for an end to police violence and had a personal meeting with the Interior Minister Yury Karayev after riot police and prison guards used violent tactics in the days following disputed presidential polls on August 9. Three protesters died and hundreds were injured. A spokesman for the Belarusian Border Guard Committee, Anton Bychkovsky, said he had "no information" on the border incident. The 74-year-old archbishop in an interview with Polish radio station Radio Marja on Sunday said there was reason to believe the elections were unfair and that the Belarusian people were defending their rights. The Church estimates that Catholics make up about 15 percent of the 9.5 million population in Belarus, while there are more Orthodox Christian believers. vk-am/jbr/bp