"Few people have risen so high in the international imagination only to fall as dramatically as Aung San Suu Kyi. In 2013, after the Nobel Peace Prize laureate was released from house arrest in Myanmar, as the military regime gradually liberalized in the face of punishing international sanctions, Suu Kyi was hailed in the British parliament as a "conscience of a country and a heroine for humanity." Two years later, as she celebrated victory for her National League for Democracy (NLD) in Myanmar's first free elections in decades, the moment seemed to solidify her place in history as Asia's Nelson Mandela. This week, the "heroine for humanity" appeared at the Hague to defend her country -- and by extension herself -- from accusations of genocide against Rohingya Muslims, hundreds of thousands of whom have been forced out of northwestern Myanmar by a yearslong military crackdown. Few people are as perfect as their public image, especially when they are perceived as a saint. Nor did the 2015 election represent as much of a break with Myanmar's past as it first seemed -- the military kept a firm grip on power, while the ethnic strife and civil war which have racked the country since independence never went away..."