Tutsi rule. The Tutsi aristocracy or elite was distinguished from Tutsi commoners, and wealthy Hutu were often indistinguishable from upper-class Tutsi. When the Belgian colonists conducted censuses, they wanted to identify the people throughout Rwanda-Burundi according to a simple classification scheme. They defined "Tutsi" as anyone owning more than ten cows (a sign of wealth) or with the physical feature of a longer nose, or longer neck, commonly associated with the Tutsi. The Belgians believed that some Tutsis had facial characteristics that were generally atypical of other Bantus. They sought to explain these purported divergent physical traits by postulating admixture with
Sainte-Famille Church genocide of 1994 thousands of Tutsi and Hutu took refuge in the church and many were massacred, following the death of President Juvénal Habyarimana. Witnesses said that the priest in charge of the church, Father Wenceslas Munyeshyaka, armed himself and helped Hutu militias take people from the church to be killed. Munyeshyaka was responsible for many of the killings, agreeing to "let the militia pick off those they wanted every now and then." Wenceslas Munyeshyaka hated the Tutsis and called them the "inyenzis". Following this incident and similar ones in other churches, many of the Rwandan people converted to Islam.