Belarus students, supporting opposition to study in Poland

The Konstanty Kalinowski scholarships, named after a 19th-century Polish-Belarusian journalist and revolutionary, paves the way for 300 Belarusian students expelled from their home universities for opposing Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's authoritarian regime to continue their studies in neighboring Poland.

Photo: Belarus students, supporting opposition to study in Poland

Lukashenko won a third term as president in a March 19 election, beating opposition candidate Alexander Milinkevich in balloting the opposition and Western observers and governments called illegitimate. Lukashenko won 83 percent of the vote.

Two weeks after the election, Milinkevich and Polish Prime Minister Kazimierz Marcinkiewicz signed an agreement in Warsaw laying the groundwork for the scholarship program.

Marcinkiewicz and Milinkevich are both expected to take part in Wednesday's ceremony at Warsaw University.

Poland has long pushed for democratic change in neighboring Belarus, a former Soviet republic, and the program is the latest move in Warsaw's support of the opposition.

Before the March 19 presidential election, the Polish-backed Radio Racja began broadcasting from northeastern Poland to give Belarusians the chance to receive information uncensored by authorities in Minsk, the AP reports.