Memorial Unveiled in London for Victims of the 2005 Bombings

It was on July 7 2005 that 4 suicide bombers brought chaos to the heart of London, setting off devices on the cities' underground network and on one of its buses that killed 52 people and injured hundreds more.

Four years to the day after those terrible events in England's capital city, dignitaries joined the families of those who lost their lives and others who had survived the bombings to watch the unveiling of a series of 52 stainless steel columns, known as stelae, that are each 11.5ft (3.5m) in height and will will act as a permanent memorial to those who perished. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown attended the ceremony, along with the Prince of Wales and London Mayor Boris Johnson. Ken Livingstone, Mr Johnson's predecessor and the man in office at the time of the bombings was also in attendance. The memorial, erected at a cost of nearly £1 million ($1.62 million), can be found in Hyde Park, Central London, between Lovers Walk and Park Lane, and is accompanied by a plaque which lists the names of all those who died on that fateful day. Carmody Groarke were the architects responsible for the design of the columns, which they said they hoped would reflect the "random nature of the loss of life". Six relatives of the victims served on the board which commissioned the memorial, one of whom was 28 year old Saba Mozakka. Ms Mozakka's mother Behnaz Mozakka, a 47 year old biomedical officer, was killed in the blast which affected the Piccadilly tube line. And, as the Daily Telegraph reports, Ms Mozakka was delighted that such a fitting testament to the life of her mother, and her fellow victims, had been created:

We think it is truly incredible and reflects the importance of the people commemorated. One of the fantastic things about the monument is that it reflects the individual and the collective and shows the connectivity of events. I think and hope people will feel passionately about the memorial when we open it.

Indeed, as touching as the tributes from the dignitaries are, it must surely be those whose lives were turned upside down on that summer's day in July 2005 who can speak with the most authority about what the memorial truly signifies. People like 10 year old Rebekah Johnson. Rebekah, who is from Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands of England, was selected, along with 11 year old Ruby Gray, to present a posy to the Duchess of Cornwall, who was attending the unveiling ceremony with her husband the Prince of Wales. Both Rebekah and Ruby lost their fathers in the bombings. Rebekah's father Adrian was 37 years old when he was killed whilst Ruby's father Richard, the family are from the county of Suffolk in Eastern England, was 41 years old when he died. As they watched the ceremony with the young girls, their families shared their thoughts on the significance of the permanent reminder of their terrible loss. Louise Gray, the 37 year old mother of Ruby, was in no doubt about her feelings as she watched today's ceremony unfold:

This is a way of ensuring Richard is going to be remembered in a permanent place. This is more of a happy memory rather than a sad occasion for me

Likewise the family of Rebekah. 40 year old Cathey Johnson was grateful for the way that the designers had been mindful of "everybody's needs" and said that her daughter like the fact that each of the columns was "different even though they're the same." Christopher Johnson, Rebekah's 13 year old brother, voiced similar sentiments:

It's very good because every one is unique, and it reminds you of how the different people are different - from different races, different backgrounds

The bombings themselves were carried out by three British born Muslims, from the city of Leeds in Northern England, and a fourth man of Jamaican descent who was a convert to Islam. A posthumous videotape of Mohammad Sidique Khan, the oldest of the bombers and considered their leader, was broadcast in September 2005 in which he appeared to be claiming that his actions and those of his fellow bombers were retribution for the harsh treatment that Muslims all over the world were suffering at the hands of Western governments. By electing one of those governments, he seemed to infer that the British people were just as much to blame for the suffering of his fellow Muslims. Whilst there is supposedly evidence that Khan had some involvement with known terrorist groups, doubts about the authenticity of the tape, in which Ayman al-Zawahiri, reportedly al-Qaeda's second-in-command, also appeared have frequently been cast.