Democracy suffered a loss on Wednesday with the assassination of Serbia’s prime minister, Zoran Djindjic. The gangsters who shot Djindjic in front of his government headquarters at Belgrade succeeded in taking the life of the man most responsible for bringing freedom to a nation ravaged by Communism, brutality, and war. It is to the credit of Djindjic and his dedication to democracy that Serbia’s remarkable transformation will not be undone by the murder of its architect.

From his days as a dissident student at the University of Belgrade, Djindjic was a persistent foe of Yugoslavia’s backward and oppressive leadership and a champion of modern Western democracy. After studying philosophy in West Germany, he rose to prominence as the key organizer of the massive pro-democratic protests that swept through Belgrade in the winter of 1996-1997. Later, as leader of the Democratic Party, he was the backbone of the October 5, 2000, revolution that brought down Slobodan Milosevic and paved the way for electoral democracy.

A steady friend of America, Djindjic set aside nationalism and held integration with the West and hard economic and political reform as his chief priori ties. Over strong popular opposition, Djindjic delivered Mr. Milosevic and other war criminals to The Hague tribunal. He also attracted controversy by proposing the independence of Kosovo. By doing the dirty work of reform, Mr. Djindjic made himself many enemies, but he never wavered from his commitment to liberalizing the country.

Mr. Djindjic’s assassination is a reminder of how difficult it can be to achieve democracy and a testament to the courage of the people who devote their lives to its cause. It’s a struggle that has taken many good lives: from Galina Vasilievna Starovoitova, the great Russian human rights activist who was shot to death in a stairwell in 1998, to the hundreds of students who were murdered in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

But it’s a movement that will not back down in the face of violence and fear from those who prefer oppression. As the deputy chairman of the Democratic Party, Cedomir Jovanovic, told the Serbian people yesterday: “We wish to tell all the citizens of Serbia and our state union, all those people whose hearts are full of sorrow today, that today must not be a day on which tears and pain will prevail over our readiness and decisiveness to win and to conclude the job that has remained unfinished.”