Aung San Suu Kyi: ‘The Lady’, The Gambia, the tragedy

As every schoolchild knows, a Shakespearean tragedy is a story of a seemingly heroic figure whose major character flaw causes the story to end with his (or her) tragic downfall. There is something Shakespearean about the appearance of Aung San Suu Kyi at the UN International Court of Justice (ICJ) to defend her country, Myanmar (formerly Burma) and its military against accusations of genocide.

It marks a remarkable fall from grace for Suu Kyi, who used to be seen as an icon for global human rights. Now she has chosen to stand up for the same army that kept her under house arrest for years.