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Polish Foreign Minister Says Lukashenka Could Face His Own 'Egypt'


Belarus opposition leader Alyaksandr Milinkevich (L) and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski share a table at a February 2 Belarus donors' conference in Warsaw.
Belarus opposition leader Alyaksandr Milinkevich (L) and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski share a table at a February 2 Belarus donors' conference in Warsaw.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that Belarus President Alyaksandr Lukashenka could find himself facing the same kind of popular uprising now sweeping the Arab world.

Referring to the ousted president of Tunisia, Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali, and the embattled president of Egypt, Hosni Mubarak, Sikorski said “things are moving, things are happening since December.” Sikorski said that perhaps the example of Ben Ali, Mubarak, and others would make Lukashenka reflect that the path he had chosen was “not the best one for himself personally."

Sikorski was speaking February 2 in Warsaw after donor nations pledged $120 million to opposition groups in Belarus.

The 36-nation "Solidarity with Belarus" meeting was the first of its kind to focus on providing aid to NGOs, the independent media, students, and others in Belarus.

It came days after the EU and United States slapped new sanctions on Belarus in response to Lukashenka's crackdown on protests in December after his disputed reelection.

compiled from agency reports
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