Once feted by the West as a human rights heroine, Myanmar’s civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi will travel to the Hague this week to defend her regime over accusations of genocide against its Rohingya Muslim minority, in one of the most-high profile international legal cases in a generation.

Myanmar rejects the allegations which stem from the military’s savage ethnic cleansing campaign in Rakhine state in 2017 that forced 740,000 people to flee to neighbouring Bangladesh, where they now live in squalid refugee camps.

Ms Suu Kyi, who will personally represent her fledgling democracy when the first hearings kick off on Tuesday at the International Court of Justice in the Netherlands, has vowed to “defend the national interest.”

In doing so, she will be defending the military who once held her under house arrest for many years to keep her out of power.