It has been heartening to receive signatures and messages of support from people in Serbia, notably the wonderful Sonja Biserko who has courageously campaigned for human rights and truth in Serbia for a very long time. This helps reinforce the message that this is not about "Serbs" or "Bosniaks" or "Croats" - it is about truth, justice and human dignity, and their role in any future reconciliation process.

The Daily Telegraph reports that Lakshmi Mittal is on a charm offensive to smooth the way for the group's audacious €18.6bn bid for rival Arcelor, which would give Mittal Steel an astonishing $69bn in annual sales - more than 4 times the revenues of its nearest competitor:

"Mittal Steel is holding talks with European governments before deciding whether to increase its audacious €18.6billion (£12.7billion) hostile bid for rival Arcelor, whose board yesterday rejected the offer unanimously."

"Mittal Steel chairman Lakshmi Mittal has said that by 2008, a merger would deliver $1billion of synergies

Lakshmi Mittal, the steel group's chairman and Britain's richest man, faces stiff political opposition after the governments of Luxembourg, Belgium and France voiced concerns over the weekend about any deal involving job cuts."

See : full story
See also: Arcelor plays anti-globalisation card

We just passed 600 signatures this evening, which is humbling in just 10 days since the petition was released.

Some people claim the Bosnian diaspora is full of "spoilers" whose views do not count when it comes to commemorating their own loss. The humanity, humility and reason shown in the comments so far prove what we knew all along: this is wrong. We have nothing to fear from open, democratic consultation and debate.

Among the many wonderful messages of support we received today from Bosnia, Serbia and many other countries was this one from Ed Vulliamy, the journalist who first reported on the horrors of Omarska:

"Reading this list of signatories is enough to bring tears to the eyes...so many of you former neighbours, some of whom I know, now scattered across the globe by the viscious, unprovoked genocidal assault on your people and community in 1992. Omarska and the other concentration camps have not affected my life in any way that can compare with their devastating effect on yours, but that day - August 5th 1992 - when ITN and I finally made a way into Omarska and Trnopolje will remain with me for ever. It was my accursed honour to find and try to expose that evil place, about which the Western powers had known about, but done nothing, for months. You, the survivors and bereaved, are 'my' people. And it must be you, and you alone ... not Mittal Steel, not the 'Soul of Europe', who design and manage this memorial and project. I only wish every accursed building in that vile place had been left untouched - it is, after all, sacred ground in a way - as it was until Mittal arrived, just as Birkenau has been left untouched, as though the Nazis had left only yesterday. It staggers and appalls me that the so-called 'international community' (which betrayed Bosnia during the war) did not immediately commandeer the site from the fascistic statelet it established, in 1996. But no, you have been betrayed in the peace, just as you were betrayed during the genocide. The killing ground has now become a commercial enterprise. But for that one corner, the White House ... which must belong to you, to you alone, and to the honour and memory of those brutally murdered, whom you mourn. This is an act of commemoration, not of 'reconciliation'. Let that remain clear. And anyway, why should there be 'reconciliation' until there has been RECKONING ... until the perpetrators of these crimes and those who protect them with silence and denial, admit what they did, make reparations, and apologize. It is for THEM to reconcile, not you. In a way, it is for THEM to build a memorial too - not to themselves, as they do so brazenly, even at Trnopolje (ugh!), but to you. The monuments in Berlin were not built by the Jews, but by the Germans, by way of apology and reckoning. You should build this one yourselves, and let's talk about reconciliation only when they have built their own memorial to those they themselves killed. I unreservedly support this most moderate and reasonable of petitions, and salute all of you that have done likewise. The Bosniak people cannot and must not be betrayed yet again. Ed Vulliamy, London."