33 Thus, the victims felt that the law enforcement agents are partisan, and there is no regard for the rule of law. The police often let arrested people go, so there is nothing to stop the perpetrators from doing what they want to anyone as they know that their actions have been sanctioned by the ruling party. The institutions that are supposed to protect the public are used to the public’s detriment. In the last election many police stations became political bases and torture camps for the ruling party. There are draconian laws, brutal treatment of citizens by the police, and arbitrary and unlawful detention of opposition party members50. The victims stated that Zimbabwe has gone a full circle: before independence laws were used to crush dissent, people were detained and tortured, but ultimately independence was won, and the victims are confident that this era will also come to an end. The judicial system is flawed: the independent judges have been forced to resign and make way for those who are partisan. The President has a strong hand in the selection of judges, and political appointments result in failure to professionally do the job. For example, judges in the lower courts are government appointees, so they always pass judgements consistent with government policy regardless of how unfair the judgement. Hence, in the view of the victims, the once, well-respected judiciary is now no longer trusted to make impartial decisions; the system has been thoroughly compromised. All of this had had severe effects upon the wider Zimbabwean community according to the victims. The community has been divided along political party lines; neighbours, families, and friends are no longer on talking terms because they belong to different political parties, and this is encouraged by leaders through hate speeches in the public media51. In is pertinent here to point out here, in support of the views of the victims, that hate speech is given free rein in the public. In a television interview on the programme, Face the Nation, Major Midson Mupasu, who is attached to the Zimbabwe Military Academy, said: "If it were up to me, I would kill them (MDC supporters). What MDC is doing hudzvanyiriri, husveta simba (repression, exploitation). They want to bring back the colonial system that will never happen. MDC should be thankful that Zanu PF is a people's party and a very fair organisation. In my opinion MDC is not supposed to operate in Zimbabwe. They should all be arrested… Even today when I see whites I spit on the ground. I don't want to see whites. I don't even want to talk to them; I don't want to see them on the farms that we have occupied." 52 50 See Solidarity Peace Trust (2004), Disturbing the Peace”. An Overview of civilian arrests in Zimbabwe: February 2002 – January 2004, SOUTH AFRICA & ZIMBABWE: SOLIDARITY PEACE TRUST. 51 The Herald, 22 May 2004, in “Uncolonised”, a column written by Nathaniel Manheru, and also The Herald, 30 August 2004, was reporting on the President speaking at Eddison Zvobgo’s funeral. “Of course Bennett’s violence is MDC bellicosity expressed at its highest echelons. The flip side of this helms violence is mounting frustration and desperation at repeated electoral reverses and amorphousness of the MDC itself, especially on the part of its white component which sees with alarm all being lost. … But those so daft and ignorant as the Bennetts: with nowhere to go; no other skills to sell beyond farming, have no choice but to smoulder inside, often exploding into short, sharp Vesuviuses so easy to detonate.” “The MDC is Blair’s spiritual medium. Some spirit mediums are false and misleading like the MDC medium which would rather sell the country to Blair!” 52 As reported in the Standard, 31 October 2004. The report goes on to say in Rwanda by mid-April 1994, Radio Television Libres des Mille Collines RTLM had effectively become the genocide's coordinating body, broadcasting lists of "death-worthy" Tutsis. It also broadcast names of other "enemies of the (Hutu) republic," urged militiamen and citizens to seek them out, and congratulated lynch mobs for "a job well done." In December, 2003 the Rwanda Tribunal in Arusha sentenced RTLM director Ferdinand Nahimana to life imprisonment, Jean-Bosco Barayagwiza to 35 years, reduced to 27 years, and a third for 35 years, for fanning the flames of the 1994 genocide, in which an estimated 800 000 people were killed. IDASA: Zimbabwe at the Cross-Roads: Views of Zimbabwean citizens on democracy and transitional justice.