The Rohingya Crisis, the Democratisation Discourse, and the Absence of an Atrocity Prevention Lens

Abstract

This article addresses the somewhat paradoxical situation that during the reform years in Myanmar, Western optimism about democratisation existed side-by-side with increasingly dire reports about the human rights abuses against the Rohingya. In order to understand this puzzle, the article analyses the Norwegian government’s policy shift towards Myanmar, and its deepening engagement up until the landmark 2015 elections. The article argues that the widespread characterisation of the conflict in Rakhine as ‘intercommunal’, rooted in poverty and underdevelopment in Rakhine State, enabled the narrative of progress and democratisation to be upheld. This prevented actors from seeing the treatment of Rohingya through an ‘atrocity prevention lens’, and thereby from seeing Myanmar as a case where the responsibility to protect should be applied.