Messengers of Repression : Researching civil societies impact on state-proxy violence towards Rohingyas in Myanmar

Sammanfattning

This essay researches the genocide of the Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, and aims to answer if the military regime utilizes pro-government militias and state-proxies in order to commit the genocide when the military is unable to, due to constraints and pressure placed on them by local civil society organizations (CSOs) and international non-governmental organizations (INGOs). This study uses a qualitative research design in order to research this relationship during two time spans, 2010–2014 & 2017–2021. This study uses theories of the ability of CSOs and INGOs to constrain governments to create change as a backing for why regimes may stop violent repression. Furthermore, theories regarding delegated repression are used as an argument for the hypothesis of why violent repression is still active even during the constraints placed. This essay, through qualitative research which used publications by local CSOs and INGOs, press releases and other published academic works regarding the genocide in Myanmar found credible evidence which supports the hypothesis. Furthermore, it argues that the reason why the military regime continued the genocide themselves when placed under constraints during 2017–2021, was due to the military junta believing that the opportunity costs of losing the ruling power and a decrease of the genocide outweighed potential sanctions and constraints.