On 5 April 1992, in response to events all over Bosnia and Herzegovina 100,000 people of all nationalities turned out for a peace rally in Sarajevo. Serb snipers in the iconic Holiday Inn hotel under the control of the Serbian Democratic Party in the heart of Sarajevo opened fire on the crowd killing six people and wounding several more. Suada Dilberović and an ethnic Croat woman :hr:Olga Sučić|Olga Sučić were in the first rows, protesting on the Vrbanja bridge at the time. The bridge on which Sučić and Dilberović were killed was renamed in their honor. Six Serb snipers were arrested, but were exchanged when the Serbs threatened to kill the commandant of the Bosnian police academy who was captured the previous day, after the Serbs took over the academy and arrested him. Testimony provided by former JNA General Aleksandar Vasiljević during the Slobodan Milosevicwar crimes trial in The Hague contradicts the allegation that it was Serbian snipers who opened fire. The statements provided by Vasiljević turned out later to be false.
After the protesters had no other choice, they decided to storm into the parliament building where they founded the so-called "Narodni parliament", and where they offered everybody to make a two-minute speech on what should be done next in solving the siege problem. Many famous Sarajevans spoke to the full parliament main hall. The president of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegović also appeared and presented himself more as a citizen, rather than a president which brought loud cheering and applause. The atmosphere was at its highest point when the commander of the Special forces unit of the Ministry of Interior, Dragan Vikić appeared and told the audience: "To arm against the Serbian aggression".
The spark that lit the flame
It is disputed between Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs who the first casualties of the Bosnian War are. Bosniaks and Croats consider the first casualties of the war to be Suada Dilberović and Olga Sučić. Serbs consider Nikola Gardović, a groom's father who was killed at a Serb wedding procession on the second day of the referendum, on 1 March 1992 in Sarajevo's old townBaščaršija, to be the first victim of the war.
