LAND that was once a concentration camp run by Bosnian Serbs has been bought by Lakshmi Mittal, the London-based steel tycoon and Labour party donor, to reopen ore production there.

The deal was in a merger this year that made Mr Mittal boss of the world’s largest steel company.

Hundreds of prisoners died during the Bosnian war at the Omarska camp, built on the site of an iron ore mine — one of three in a complex in which Mr Mittal has acquired a controlling stake.

Camp survivors and relatives of the dead fear that the development will not show any sensitivity for the land and its history. They have sent letters to Mr Mittal pleading that installations are preserved out of respect for the dead and to help reconciliation between Bosnian Serbs and their victims, Muslim and Croat prisoners.

Mr Mittal’s spokesman said last night that he had every intention of carefully considering the sensitivities of the local community. “The mine complex was purchased a while ago and is partly on the area where the concentration camp was.

“The company is listening to the needs of a variety of groups and will act on what they say.”

Mr Mittal, chairman and chief executive of Mittal Steel, is no stranger to controversy. He was involved in a cash for favours controversy when Tony Blair wrote a letter to the Romanian government to help his purchase of the country's steel industry. He had donated £125,000 to the Labour party.

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