PARIS

New allegations have placed the Bank of France under scrutiny, as human rights advocates and researchers accuse it of playing an indirect but significant role in events leading up to the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda.

A report by Libération and the investigative unit of Radio France said a new complaint alleging complicity in genocide and crimes against humanity was filed Dec. 4 with the senior investigating judge of a Paris court’s unit for crimes against humanity.

The complaint was filed by attorneys Matilda Ferey and Joseph Breham on behalf of three civil parties -- Dafroza and Alain Gauthier, along with the Collective of Civil Parties for Rwanda (CPCR).

Researchers who examined archival material claimed the bank facilitated financial transactions for the Rwandan government in the early 1990s -- a period marked by escalating violence and preparations for mass killings.

According to the complaint, the bank either failed to impose safeguards or continued authorizing financial flows at a time when international warnings about Rwanda’s political and ethnic tensions were growing.

The complaint also centers on seven financial transfers made from an account belonging to the National Bank of Rwanda held at the Bank of France between May and August 1994.

The transfers totaled 3.17 million French francs (€486,000, or $570,942) and are suspected of having been used to procure communication equipment and weapons, despite a UN arms embargo that had been in place since May 17 of that year.

The plaintiffs claim the authorization of the transfers raises serious questions about the bank’s oversight and its potential role in enabling illicit purchases during the height of the genocide.

The complaint also draws heavily on testimony from international expert Kathi Lynn Austin, who said that “precise instructions” were issued to banks to facilitate transfers to the National Bank of Rwanda’s account in Paris.

Austin said the pattern of activity should have raised immediate concerns, noting that “when the French central bank facilitated these transactions, it should have recognized the red flags associated with them.”

Fauthier criticized the “extreme slowness” of judicial proceedings related to the genocide, noting that similar cases, including a 2017 complaint filed against BNP Paribas, have remained dormant for years.

Advocacy groups said such operations may have strengthened the Rwandan regime, which later orchestrated the killing of more than 800,000 people in one of the worst atrocities of the 20th century.

The Bank of France has not issued a detailed response but has indicated it has no record in its archives of any of the transfers in question, explaining that such documents are routinely destroyed after 10 years.

The institution added that the amounts mentioned “could be consistent with operational expenses”.