Thirty years after the Rwandan genocide, a dark chapter in modern history that saw nearly a million people perish in organized ethnic violence, France’s alleged role in the tragedy is once again under intense scrutiny. New revelations threaten to reignite long-standing controversies and strain diplomatic relations.
A recent investigative report has implicated France’s central financial institution, the Banque de France, in potentially facilitating the genocide. According to a joint investigation by Libération and Radio France’s investigative unit, a formal legal complaint was filed earlier this month accusing the bank of complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity.
The complaint centers around seven suspicious financial transfers originating from the National Bank of Rwanda’s account at the Banque de France during the peak of the massacres, between May and August 1994. These transfers, totaling 3.172 million French francs (approximately 486,000 euros), were directed to various destinations that raised immediate red flags.
The initial transfer on May 5th was earmarked for Alcatel, a French company, ostensibly for satellite communication equipment. Subsequent transfers were channeled to Rwandan embassies in Addis Ababa, Cairo, and Pretoria. Alarmingly, it is strongly suspected that these latter transfers were used to procure weapons, despite a UN arms embargo imposed on Rwanda on May 17, 1994.
The legal complaint, filed by French lawyers on behalf of civil parties, relies heavily on the testimony of Cathy Lynn Austin, an international expert specializing in tracking arms trafficking networks. Austin testified that Hutu leaders explicitly ordered the consolidation of funds from foreign accounts into the account held at the Banque de France in Paris at the onset of the killings.
Austin contends that an institution of the Banque de France’s size and stature should have possessed stringent oversight mechanisms capable of detecting the suspect nature of these transactions, especially given the extensive media coverage of the atrocities and the presence of a coup government in Rwanda. The allegations raise serious questions about the level of due diligence exercised by French financial institutions during the Rwandan genocide.
