17 May 2000
The Director General of Foreign Affairs and members of the Department have learned with sadness of the passing away after a short illness of Shun Chetty, the Regional Representative of the International Organisation for Migration. The Director General has conveyed his deepest sympathies to Mr Chetty's widow Dr Fazila Varachia, and family.
Shun Chetty was born on 11 April 1941 and educated at Sastri College, Durban and at University College, Durban where he studied law, having been Best Student of the Year in 1968 and President of the Law Students Society in the same year. He was admitted as an Attorney in 1971 and practiced law in Malawi until 1973 when he returned to law practice in Johannesburg and Durban.
During the next five years he was the instructing Attorney in several of the most prominent political trials in the country, defending members of the ANC, the PAC and the Black Consciousness Movement. He was instructing Attorney in the marathon Black Consciousness trial held from 1975-1977 in Pretoria's Palace of Justice, where the leadership of the BCM was charged with numerous counts under the Terrorism Act. He instructed Counsel in the definitive trial that resulted from the 1976 Soweto uprising and acted in a number of inquests into the deaths in custody of political detainees, including Bantu Steven Biko in 1977.
In August 1979 he left South Africa. From January 1980 he served for sixteen years in various capacities with the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, including as UNHCR Acting Regional Representative in Khartoum, Bangkok and Beijing. From early 1996 to May 1998 he was CEO of the Australian Refugee Review Tribunal, an independent statutory body, in Sydney.
In June 1998 Shun Chetty assumed his most recent post as Regional Representative for Southern Africa, of the International Organisation for Migration, the leading international organisation working with migration affairs, with its headquarters in Geneva. He will be sadly missed by his colleagues and friends in South Africa.
Note:
The funeral will take place in Durban on 18 May at 16:00 at the Clare Estate Crematorium. A memorial service will be held on 27 May from 12:30 to 15:30 at the Royal Durban Light Infantry Hall, Marriot Road (near the Greyville racecourse).
Issued by: Department of Foreign Affairs
Pretoria
17 May 2000