Fourteen Namibia civil organisations jointly held a peaceful demonstration in front of the gates of the Zimbabwe High Commission in Windhoek on Thursday. The group of fifty joined some 200 civil rights groups in Nigeria, South Africa, Egypt, Zimbabwe and New York coordinated by Amnesty International to alert the global community about the draconian "clearing operation" of Zimbabwean authorities which in the past month destroyed thousands shacks and small shops in the country, affecting some 300 000 people. Ms Dorkas Nangolo-Philemon of the National Society for Human Rights (NSHR) read out the statement distributed worldwide. "We urge the African Union and all member states to address the situation in Zimbabwe as an urgent matter at the forthcoming AU Assembly in Lybia on 3 and 4 July", the NSHR spokesperson said. Human rights lawyer and director of the Legal Assistance Centre (LAC) Norman Tjombe called on President Robert Mugabe to step down as head of state and to stop the human rights abuses of his government directed against citizens of Zimbabwe.