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{{Kenya’s Deputy President William Ruto Monday morning departed for The Hague in Netherlands ahead of resumption of trial on Tuesday.}}

Ruto facing crimes against humanity charges returned to Kenya Thursday last week after the International Criminal Court (ICC) Presiding Judge Chille Eboe-Osuji adjourned the trials due to witness hitch.

The first prosecution witness, a lady, is expected to take stand on Tuesday.

Sources told The Standard that she will testify on how the arson attack on Kiambaa Church in which 30 people were killed at the height of 2007/2008 post-election violence was planned.

The deputy president might be away for 18-days if he opts not travel back over the weekends since the ICC trial will run until October 4, when a two-week break is scheduled.

After the scheduled adjournment on October 4, Ruto’s trial will resume on October 14 and will run up to November 1.

Mr Ruto, President Uhuru Kenyatta, and former radio journalist Joshua Sang are accused of orchestrating violence after elections in 2007, and are being tried separately at The Hague.

Mr Ruto becomes the first serving official to appear at the ICC.

The two trials are seen as a crucial test of the ICC’s ability to prosecute political leaders.

{Standard}

{{About 12 years ago, a man in a hoodie with his face almost covered came into the InterAsian Market and Deli on Nolensville Pike Road in Nashville, Tennessee. It was near closing time.}}

Somboon Wu, who was working that night with his father, remembers that the night was cold. He also remembers the man buying beer, then asking for cigarettes. And when Wu’s father opened the cash register, he remembers the customer pulling out a handgun and demanding all the cash in the register.

Wu says his father, Keosavanh Xayarath, always said two things: “Stay calm” and “Money can be replaced”. So he gave the guy the cash. The store had been open for several years by that point and had never been robbed before. That robbery was the only time his father had been threatened with a gun, according to Wu.

Other than a deep gratitude that no one was hurt, the incident didn’t really change the family much.

Fast forward to September 6, 2013. Two men approach the younger Wu at the market and explain they have something to leave for the owner. One man places a white envelope on the counter.“He told me to make sure the owner got it because there was money inside,” Wu said. “I slid the envelope back toward him and told him he’d have to come back when my dad came in. I was wary of these two.”

The two men retrieved the envelope and stepped outside, where Wu watched them talk to each other. Then they walked back in, dropped the envelope on the counter and walked away. “I didn’t know what it was, so I took it to our attorney,” Wu said. “He was floored.”

In addition to $400, inside the envelope was a handwritten note on yellow notepaper. It begun, “I am a drug addict.”

The letter went on to explain, with a few misspellings, that the money and letter were an attempt to make amends to the store owner for the 12-year-old robbery.

The family posted a photo of the letter to Instagram and Twitter with the caption, “To the anonymous person, we want to tell you all is forgiven and thank you for the note. We don’t care about the money. We are more inspired and touched by your act.

We hope you find peace in life and prosperity. Best wishes!”

Wu said his father wished he would have recognised the man. When asked what the men looked like, Wu said he didn’t want to go into too much detail out of respect for his wishes to remain anonymous. Xayarath also told Wu he wished he had known then what the robber was going through.

“We think he had a lot of courage to come back and say he’s sorry,” Wu said. “He may not realise how many lives he’s touched. If he happens to read this and if he ever wants to talk, he is welcome back here.” (CNN).

{{South Sudan’s army has killed almost 100 members of a small tribe, executing some of them in cold blood, during seven months of fighting with rebels in the eastern Jonglei state, Human Rights Watch said on Friday.}}

South Sudan’s defence minister Kuol Manyang declined to discuss details of the report by the New York-based rights group. But he told Reuters authorities had launched an investigation in August into army abuses in the vast territory.

South Sudan’s army spokesman could not be reached on his mobile phone.

South Sudan’s army is grappling with a rebellion led by local politician David Yau Yau as well as clashes between his Murle tribe and the rival Lou Nuer in Jonglei, which borders Ethiopia.

Western powers are worried a heavy-handed army approach is worsening the violence, undermining stability in the African country already awash with arms after decades of conflict.

HRW said in a report soldiers had killed at least 96 members of the Murle tribe, including 74 civilians, 17 of them women and children, between December and July.

Some of them were shot dead in crossfire during battles with rebels, HRW said.

Others were executed as an apparent punishment for alleged support for Yau Yau or for failing to give up weapons during an army campaign to disarm locals, the campaign group added.

The army, or SPLA, killed 13 Murle members in Lotho village on Dec 4, HRW said.

“SPLA soldiers approached a group of civilian men … and demanded that the men hand over their guns.” the report said, citing witnesses.

“The men gave the SPLA two rifles. The SPLA then tied up the men into two groups of seven. The soldiers executed the men in one group at the site and took the men in the other group some distance away and shot them,” it added.

Yau Yau’s group has said it fights to end army abuses, corruption and the domination of the ruling party in South Sudan.

“Soldiers should be protecting Murle civilians in Jonglei state from the fighting and the ethnic conflict,” said Daniel Bekele, HRW’s Africa director. “Instead, the army has been killing these vulnerable people.”

Last month, President Salva Kiir ordered the arrest of several generals in Jonglei over the alleged killing of civilians and other reported abuses under their command.

South Sudan’s government has struggled to reform and modernise its army, a lose umbrella of former guerillas who fought Sudan’s government forces during decades of civil war. That conflict ended in a 2005 peace deal that paved the way for South Sudan to secede in 2011.

Tribal violence, often triggered by conflicts over livestock and land, has killed more than 1,600 people in Jonglei since the secession, hampering plans to explore the state for oil with the help of France’s Total and U.S. firm Exxon.

South Sudan accuses Sudan of supplying Yau Yau with weapons, an accusation dismissed by Khartoum.