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France has opened a full scale inquiry over the alleged role of banking giant BNP Paribas in the Rwandan 1994 genocide in which more than 800,000 people died, France24 is reporting. Three civil society groups had filed a legal case against the bank, accusing it of complicity over a transfer of $1.3m (£963,000) to an arms dealer. The money was used to purchase weapons in violation of a UN arms embargo.
The Hutu colonel who received the arms, Theoneste Bagosora, is serving a 35-year sentence for crimes against humanity. A BNP spokeswoman said the latest judicial step was not a new development.
The Rwandan genocide was sparked after the plane of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana, an ethnic Hutu, was shot down on 6 April 1994.Hutu militias then massacred members of the minority Tutsi ethnic group over the course of 100 days.
