Welcome - THE OMARSKA MEMORIAL DEBATE

About the Omarska Memorial Project

In 2005, the world's biggest Steel company, Mittal Steel, bought the Omarska mine complex - site of a 1992 Serb-run death camp where thousands were tortured and hundreds killed. Survivors are urging Mittal to support their right to a proper memorial on the site, and to provide assurances that the site will be surveyed for bodies of those still missing. Mittal seem to be listening, but they need to know that people around the world still care.

Catch up with latest news or read an overview and backstory of the project to date

Over 2,200 people support a survivor-led memorial to the Omarska camp - add your name here

This site attempts to document the Omarska Memorial Centre project so that survivors and families of the missing can make up their own minds about the process and how it should be run : How to help and what you can do here

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Chris Kuelemans article in Dani

Last changed Jul 08, 2007 12:27 by editor

Chris Kuelemens has published an article in Dani about Omarska and the project to create a survivor-led memorial in the White House.

See full text of the article na bosanskom or in English

Posted at 16 Jun @ 8:43 AM by

editor |

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Current Status with Mittal

Last changed Jun 16, 2007 13:39 by editor

We held back on the campaigning, and this site, for an entire year whilst we talked to our friends in Mittal and gave them time to start the project, but the merger of Mittal with Arcelor meant that responsibility for implementing the project passed to the newly formed Mittal-Areclor Foundaton. On May 30, the Dutch OPTIMISTI 2004 foundation formally wrote to the European CEO who was responsible for the purchase of the Omarska site notifying him that we expected the implementation process to proceed more quickly.

We are due to meet with Mittal people soon to agree the implementation, but we feel that enough time has passed now, so we shall revive this site and provide more regular updates just in case we experience further delay.

Also, we have seen some disturbing signs of a failure on the part of the mine company to honour its commitment to leave the White House untouched. Visitors last month reported that some of the artefacts in the building (a desk and chair that were used during the torture at the camp) have been removed and/or broken. This suggests we may need to take a more active approach to ensuring the memorial starts to take shape, but we still have faith in Mittal to follow through on the public commitment it made in 2005, so watch this space...

In the meantime, please help generate as many signatures as possible the petition.

Posted at 16 Jun @ 8:59 AM by

editor |

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Tuesday, April 25, 2006

Update on recent developments

Last changed Apr 25, 2006 00:26 by editor

Apologies for the lack of updates, but we have been engaging in some quiet consultations with people and organisations involved in the project. Here is a quick summary of where we are:

In February 2006, we wrote to Mittal Steel offering an analysis of the project and some constructive ideas on how to create a more sustainable survivor-led memorial project. Download a copy of our briefing

On February 20, 2006, partly in respons to our criticisms of the previous phase of the project, Mittal Steel suspended the work of Soul of Europe and announced that they remain ready to implement a solution that has wider agreement among the community.

Since that time, we have consulted with the local organisations who have been working on the concept of a memorial at Omarska and they have all signed up to a joint letter to Mittal Steel pointing out that there is indeed agreement among the local community about how to proceed. Download a copy of the letter in English

Mittal Steel are now consulting about next steps and we await their decision to continue the project.

The petition now stands at over 2,000 names (2056 as of today, if my counting is correct!) in support of a survivor-led memorial project.

Posted at 25 Apr @ 12:22 AM by

editor |

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Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Tekst na bosanskom

Last changed Feb 14, 2006 22:26 by editor

Poštovani prijatelji, Od danas možete citati pojedine tekstove na ovoj stranici koji su prevedeni na bosanski jezik. Ove stranice možete naci na lijevoj strani Peticije iznad samog teksta Peticije. Kemo

Posted at 14 Feb @ 5:49 PM by

Kemal Pervanic |

1 comment

Allegations from Die Tageszeitung about the memorial project

Last changed Feb 14, 2006 17:38 by editor

The Bosnian Institute have reported a story in the German newspaper die tageszeitung about the Omarska Memorial:

According to a prominent German journalist, Mittal Steel has won the acquiescence of local Serb nationalist authorities to a memorial for the victims of the Omarska concentration camp by agreeing to give Serbs priority in hiring for new jobs created by the reopening of the Omarska mines

As reported in the article below reproduced from Berlin's die tageszeitung, Mittal Steel, the world's largest and richest steel company, agrees to a memorial for the victims of Bosnia's most notorious concentration camp - but no jobs for the survivors and their relatives. In order to buy the acquiescence of the local Serb nationalist authorities, who have strenuously objected to any memorial, Mittal has agreed to give Serbs priority in hiring for the new jobs created by the reopening of the Omarska mines. Muslims and Croats may be hired at some future date (2009?), when the ore production expands, according to Mittal's representative Willie Smit.

The full story re-printed in German here: http://www.bosnia.org.uk/news/news_body.cfm?newsid=2140.

Clearly, if this allegation is true, which we do not know, both RS and Mittal Steel would be acting illegally and the new High Representative Mr. Schwarz-Schilling would presumably need to consider the situation carefully.

Posted at 14 Feb @ 5:23 PM by

editor |

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Useful Links

Na Bosanskom

Background

The Memorial Project

The Debate

About the Omarska Memorial Project