Recent studies point at foreign support directed to rebel groups as a factor triggering civilian victimization. The reasoning: rebels think strategically and calculate that more external funding means less need for a strong relationship with local civilians for the sake of resources. This paper claims that different kinds of foreign support lead to different rates in civilian victimization. However, the study’s zero-inflated negative binomial regression model finds little evidence for the theoretical argument that the link between foreign support and civilian victimization is caused by a change in rebel’s dependence on civilians. Nonetheless, the regression model does identify a strong positive correlation between on the one hand foreign support through the provision of I) troops, II) access to military or intelligence infrastructure & joint operations and III) intelligence material & other forms of support and on the other hand civilian victimization. The paper moreover argues that secessionism functions as an interaction effect within the relationship between foreign support and civilian victimization. Receiving foreign support means for secessionist an international recognition of their objectives. This paper argues that because of that recognition, secessionists’ concern about their international reputation diminishes and that they are consequently less restrained in perpetrating civilian victimization. The data analysis confirms that secessionist rebels tend to be engaged in higher rates of civilian victimization when they receive foreign support.
