IN times of crisis, self-preservation is a natural human reaction. Therefore it was only a matter of time before survivors of last Tuesday's deadly earthquake in Haiti started looting and fighting for food, water and other supplies.

And even as we acknowledged the scale of the devastation, as well as the fact that Port-au-Prince is densely populated, we had hoped that the situation in Haiti would not have descended to the present level, as we had expected that the United Nations peacekeepers, assisted by the Haitian police would have been able to maintain some level of order.

As it now stands, aid workers and rescue teams are so overwhelmed that large areas of Port-au-Prince remain untouched by the worldwide aid effort, triggering outbreaks of violence. Bands of machete-wielding young men, we are told, their faces covered with bandanas, are roaming the streets of Port-au-Prince. We have also received reports of a woman being "decapitated for whatever she had been carrying" near a market.

Reports out of Haiti also said that police have shot dead a man suspected of looting, and in areas where the police were unable to intervene, people were lynched, their bodies left on streets just cleared of those killed by the earthquake.

To make matters worse, donors continue to complain about the bottleneck clogging the Toussaint L'Overture Airport now being run by the United States military under an agreement signed with the Haitian Government.

And the United Nations' option to defer decision-making on aid distribution to the Haitian Government, which is itself struggling to maintain control, has not helped either.

On Sunday, President René Préval was reported as saying that 3,500 US troops, who were previously confined to the airport, would be deployed to help Haitian and United Nations law enforcers keep order. At the same time, foreign media have reported an unnamed Haitian Government minister as saying that a state of emergency has been declared until the end of January.

However, the dilemma being faced by the Haitian people was highlighted by President Préval's admission that there are 2,000 police in the capital city and 3,000 escaped prisoners -- some of whom, no doubt, will use this crisis as a shield to unleash mayhem on their fellow Haitians.

And despite President Préval's announcement that security is being increased, we are already receiving reports that there was very little sign of that increase on Sunday, particularly in a refugee camp near the ruined Presidential Palace, except for the period when Mr Ban Ki-Moon, the UN secretary general, visited.

Our fear is that if the security challenges are not addressed immediately, the violence will worsen as people become more frustrated living without food, water and basic sanitation. As it now stands, a power vacuum is being created, and that is something that Haiti cannot allow to happen.

In our view, someone has to take charge of the situation, and the United States is probably in the best condition to. The US should then proceed to put together a working coalition of nations, with the support of the United Nations and the Caribbean Community (Caricom) secretariat.

There is no time to lose.

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