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London remembers deadly suicide bombings
2008-07-07
LONDON (AFP) - London marked the third anniversary Monday of the suicide bombings on the city's transport network, with ceremonies at blast sites as survivors and the victims' families remembered the deadly attacks. A total of 56 people were killed, including the four bombers who detonated their homemade devices on three London Underground trains and a double-decker bus at the height of the morning rush hour. London Mayor Boris Johnson joined senior government and transport officials to lay flowers outside King's Cross railway station at 8:50 am (0750 GMT), the exact time three of the four bombs caused carnage under the city's streets. Johnson's tribute on his wreath read: "We honour the memory of those who died on 7/7 2005, we salute the courage of those who were injured and our thoughts and prayers are with all victims and their families." Survivors and families of the victims visited the three Underground stations -- Russell Square, Aldgate and Edgware Road -- where the bombs went off, and Tavistock Square, where another home-made bomb later wrecked the bus. Many clutched flowers and wept as they bowed their heads in silence to remember, as Londoners began another day around them. One woman, who declined to be named, said at King's Cross: "Do you think anything has improved? I don't. My son died on this day three years ago and I do not feel any safer today than when I found out about what had happened. "We all still feel under threat -- perhaps even more so." Others spoke of their need to remember while priest Kevin McGarahan, who helped in the rescue, said: "It's so important that we do not allow the terrorists to win." London's Evening Standard newspaper said the family of one of the bombers, Shehzad Tanweer, and 400 guests marked the anniversary of his death with a "party" at his grave in Pakistan, describing it as an "insult" to victims. Compared to the first anniversary of the attacks, when there was a national two-minute silence and a day-long memorial programme, subsequent anniversaries have been low-key. Three years on, dozens of the victims' families and some of the 700 who were injured are still waiting for compensation payments. A coroner's inquest is also awaited, pending the result of a trial of three people accused of helping the bombers. The attacks, by four British Muslims, threw the spotlight on the threat from homegrown extremism, and the extent of opposition to British foreign policy in Iraq and Afghanistan among the country's 1.6-million-strong Muslim community. Britain is still facing a "severe" threat from terrorism -- the highest level -- according to the security services, with increasingly frequent arrests of suspects under anti-terrorism legislation. Last year, Jonathan Evans, the head of the domestic intelligence service MI5, said the number of people with suspected links to extremists in Britain had risen from 1,600 in 2006 to at least 2,000. The government is currently pushing through parliament proposals to increase the pre-charge detention limits for suspected extremists from the current 28 days to 42 days, despite widespread outrage from civil liberties groups. Britain's multicultural model, once held up as an example, has also come under scrutiny, with some suggesting Islamist sentiment is increasing, due in part to segregation and alienation among younger British Muslims. International development minister Shahid Malik, Britain's first Muslim minister and a lawmaker for Dewsbury in northern England, where three of the four bombers had links, suggested prejudice was growing against Muslims. An ICM survey for a television documentary to be shown later Monday suggested 51 percent of Britons blame Islam to a degree for the bombings while eight out of 10 Muslims thought their faith had faced more prejudice since then.
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