Kidnapping an Election

Everyone looks to the well-equipped 9,006-member United Nations Stabilization Mission in Haiti, led by Brazilian troops, as the guarantor of security. But the U.N. force, which was deployed in June 2004, is assigned to defend Haiti's constitution, not to take up arms against criminals. "When they leave, I will leave too," says Jean-Buteau Sévère, 34, who returned to his dicey Port-au-Prince neighborhood of Bel Air only after the Brazilians set up an outpost there. The gangs and private armies are likely to collude in controlling the streets--and thus the votes--in the walkup to the election. And unless that situation is eliminated, few experts believe any kind of humanitarian aid can be effectively dispensed, dooming the incoming government, regardless of who leads it.