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
Gikondo massacre Gikondo massacre The Gikondo massacre was the mass murder of about 110 people of Tutsi identity, including children, who sheltered in a Polish Pallottine mission church in , Kigali. The massacre took place on April 9, 1994 and was executed by Interahamwe militia under supervision of the Hutu presidential guard. The massacre was the first absolute proof of a genocide discovered by UNAMIR during the Rwandan Genocide in 1994. The Rwandan Genocide began on April 6, 1994, after the plane carrying Rwandan president Juvénal Habyarimana and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the president of Burundi on board was shot down while approaching the