By the beginning of 1979 the Ian Smith-led minority white government of Rhodesia was under pressure from many fronts that led to a multi-racial general election in April 19790. Ian Hancock examines the role that Australia, under the leadership of Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser, played in pressing throughout 1979 for a solution to the Rhodesia/Zimbabwe problem to be found, and found within the British Commonwealth of Nations.

In August 1979, Prime Minister Fraser attended the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting (CHOGM) in Zambia which focused on events in southern Africa. Ian Hancock discusses this CHOGM, the Lancaster House Conference that followed in London with a negotiated settlement, the transition leading to a ceasefire and the 1980 elections in new Zimbabwe.
  

Author: Ian Hancock
Publication date: 2011
Pages: 36

ISBN:  978 1 920807 85 6