Donors pledge €87 million aid for Belarus opposition

Belarussian opposition groups won pledges of €87 million from donor nations yesterday at a conference organised amid moves to put the squeeze on President Alexander Lukashenko.

“Summing up, I can say there will be €87 million in aid, and most of these are new resources,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski told reporters after the gathering ended.

The 36-nation Solidarity with Belarus conference was called by Poland, Belarus’s neighbour and a leader in the European Union’s drive to get tough with Mr Lukashenko, who has ruled the ex-Soviet state since 1994.

“Perhaps the examples of Mr Ben Ali, Mr Mubarak and others will make President Lukashenko reflect that the path he has chosen is not the best one for himself personally,” Mr Sikorski said, referring to the ousted Tunisian leader and Egypt’s embattled President.

The meeting was the first of its kind to focus on bolstering financial support for Belarussian NGOs, the independent media, students and others who have fallen foul of the regime.

It marked a response to mass arrests in the wake of Mr Lukashenko’s December 19 election for a fourth term, which has been disputed by the opposition and the West.

“This is a very important gesture of solidarity and it says to us ‘You are not left alone in the face of this horror,’” Belarussian campaigner Eva Neklyayeva said in Warsaw.

Her father Vladimir Neklyayev was arrested after standing against Mr Lukashenko in the election, and was on Saturday placed under house arrest after being released from prison.