Article #21900

Courageous lawyer who helped Zimbabwe gain independence and oversaw elections in Cambodia and Afghanistan

The lawyer and elections expert Reg Austin, who has died aged 91, played a key role in the transition to democracy in countries such as Cambodia, East Timor and Afghanistan through UN electoral missions in the 1990s. His most longstanding political commitment, however, was to the liberation and security of his home country of Zimbabwe.

The son of white settlers in what was the self-governing British colony of Southern Rhodesia, Reg took the rare step in 1961 of joining the original African political party, Zimbabwe African Peoples Union (Zapu), founded by Joshua Nkomo.