Mittal Steel and the Omarska mine
 | Mittal Steel (Ticker: MT) is the biggest and fastest growing steel company in the world, and Lakshmi Mittal is the 3rd richest person in the world. We have every reason to suspect the company wants to do the right thing in relation to the Omarska Memorial Project if it knows how. |
In 2004, Mittal Steel bought Bosnia's main steel company BH Steel for an initial sum of $80m, with a further $200m in investment promised over ten years.
It in unclear whether their due diligence was lacking or perhaps not objective, but Mittal Steel initially seemed unprepared to deal with the issues raised by the mine's former status as a death camp, such as the possible presence of bodies and other war crimes evidence in the mine shafts and the question of how and by whom the camp should be commemorated.
Several Bosnian organisations, Srcem do Mira, Optimisti (Netherlands) and IZVOR all wrote to Mittal in 2004 requesting that at least part of the mine be given over to a camp memorial - see Ed Vulliamy's piece about the issues raised.
Mittal responded by employing a mediator, an English ex-priest named Donald Reeves, whose organisation Soul of Europe had been working in Bosnia on an inter-faith reconciliation project that aimed to rebuild the famous Ferhadija mosque in Banja Luka.
In 2005, the Soul of Europe were funded by Mittal Steel to find a solution to what is seen as a PR problem for the company, but "without antagonising local Serbs", who constitute the vast majority of their 600+ workforce.
In February 2006, Mittal Steel suspended the first phase of the project when it became clear that there was not widespread agreement with the mediation process, and began constructive dialogue with representatives of survivors and families of the missing both inside and outside Bosnia to seek a solution they could all sign up to.
Mittal Steel place great emphasis on maintaining brand equity and being a good corporate citizen, which is a difficult challenge within a fast-growing, newly consolidated global group. Most people agree they will tend to try to do the right thing if they know how. | 
As far as I'm concerned back in the 1980s, Omarska churned out three million tons of iron a year and its large complex of buildings laid out amidst the ramshackle beauty of this westernmost part of Bosnia was the largest on the continent. In fact, I am very interested in the issue, therefore I downloaded a big set of articles about the situation on torrent search engine http://www.picktorrent.com
and I am aware of almost anything going on there. But your post has produced an unforgettable impression on me.