MOUSSA had driven me last time I was here. Now he's been shot. His friend Omar had just been to see him at the hospital, and he told me about it.
Moussa's family owns a shop. Three men came and asked for protection money. He has a cousin who's a judge, so he asked him what to do. The police came and waited. When the terrorists came back, the police killed them, but Moussa lost a kidney in the shootout. Now his other kidney is infected."
With its white colonial buildings overlooking the sea, Algiers is still the most beautiful of Arab capitals. But its streets inspire fear. "That cafe was blown up two months ago," Omar said, pointing to a shop with gaping, twisted metal shutters in the Telemly neighbourhood. "Policemen used to have their morning coffee there. They blew up the cafe next to the commissariat too."
The apartment buildings of Telemly rise like the walls of a canyon on either side of the winding boulevard. The police dislike this road because the fundamentalists sometimes shoot at them from the buildings. It frightens Omar too; he was recently caught in a shootout here.
Algiers is even more nervous than usual, anticipating today's constitutional referendum. The government has deployed 300,000 soldiers, police and militiamen to provide security across the country. The extremist Armed Islamic Group (GJA) has vowed to "break the necks" of anyone who votes.
Residents have stocked up on food, and schools have been closed all week. Plainclothes policemen yesterday moved into classrooms which are to serve as polling stations, to ensure no bombs could be hidden in advance of the voting. Heavy lorries are banned until after the election, apparently to prevent their use as car bombs.
One year ago, retired Gen Liamine Zeroual won a landslide victory in a surprisingly peaceful presidential election. But Gen Zeroual failed to keep his election promise to restore peace to the country of 30 million, and his supporters are disenchanted.
"We had a little hope a year ago," a waiter told me over lunch. "Now there is no hope at all." He expressed a widespread view that the new constitution - Algeria's fourth since independence in 1962 - is a step backwards. "They're going back to the old FLN (National Liberation Front), one party rule. The government doesn't care about the cost of living or the attacks. They're not the ones who suffer. It's the people who pay the price. I dread the end of the year. There is going to be a total explosion.
The military seems to be losing control. An estimated 200 people have been murdered each week in the run up to the referendum most of them in outlying areas of Algiers. When the conflict started in 1992, many of those killed were Islamist guerrillas. Now the majority of victims are believed to be civilians.
Bombs, ricocheting bullets, protection money, electricity cuts and the housing shortage obsess ordinary Algerians - not the fine print of the new constitution, which fills four newspaper pages. The government is not even able to help its own; the Association of the Families of Victims of Terrorism this week accused the government of neglecting them, and demanded that a law be passed "to clarify the status of victims of stray bullets, bomb explosions, raped women, retired people and minors who are wounded".
Only two of Algeria's dozen political parties support the referendum: the FLN and a tiny party founded by a former prime minister. Opponents say the new constitution will make the president a virtual monarch because it gives him wide powers to appoint officials, and allows him to name one third of the upper house of parliament. Since a three quarter majority is needed to pass legislation, President Zeroual will be able to block all laws he doesn't like.
Dr Said Sadi, the psychiatrist who leads the vehemently anti fundamentalist Rally for Culture and Democracy (RCD), is an outspoken critic of both the government and the Islamists. He won 10 per cent of the vote in last year's presidential election.
Most of Sadi's supporters are Berber Kabyles, who have campaigned for the past 15 years to have their language recognised - a right denied them in the new constitution. The RCD has called for a boycott. "I know there will be electoral fraud," Dr Sadi told me yesterday. "The referendum is unacceptable. I already know the government will announce a massive Yes vote."
When Dr Sadi arrived at the government run centre for a scheduled press conference yesterday, police barred the way. Dr Sad then met with journalists in a nearby hotel coffee shop, swearing not to give in to the government steam roller".
A year after the presidential election, Algerian society is ruled by terror. The corruption, poverty and censorship are as bad as terrorism. Those who are not killed by the GIA are persecuted by the regime."
What is happening in Algeria is not so much a civil war as a war against civilians, Dr Sadi told us. A man in the port city of Bejaia was kidnapped for supporting the boycott. A dozen students were arrested at rifle point for criticising President Zeroual, he added.
"The government is capable of doing anything to stay in power. I have never been so pessimistic. You can make errors, but to want to rebuild the regime which brought the country to this bloody impasse is irresponsible to say least."
