JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - A fugitive wanted by the International Criminal Court, Moammar Gadhafi's one-time heir apparent appears to have disappeared in the Sahara Desert's ocean of dunes and could remain hidden for months in an area more than twice the size of Texas.
Seif al-Islam Gadhafi may be plotting a counterrevolution, scheming about a getaway to a friendly country, or negotiating a surrender to the ICC. Nothing has been heard of him since sources on Oct. 28 said Tuareg nomads were escorting him the length of Libya and that he was close to the Mali border.
"My latest information is that they are not in Mali and they are not in Niger yet either," Malian legislator Ibrahim Ag Mohamed Assaleh said this week, adding to the mystery of his whereabouts.
Gadhafi, a 39-year-old British-educated engineer, could be deliberately feeding disinformation from a desert where national boundaries are unmarked and unpoliced and where smugglers and al-Qaida gunmen roam freely.
Analyst Adam Thiam, a columnist for Le Republicain newspaper in Mali, said life in the desert for long periods outside of isolated oases is nearly impossible, but that a zone in Mali has water and animals . However the area is used by al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, an extremist group which has "no love of the Gadhafi family," Thiam said. Gadhafi violently repressed Libya's own Islamist movement and was a longtime enemy of al-Qaida.
Gadhafi and his late father's former chief of military intelligence, Abdullah al-Senoussi, havereportedly been travelling in separate convoys escorted by Tuaregs, the hardy nomads who understand best how to survive in the desert. Loyalty to the ethnic group trumps nationality, and the Tuareg's traditional stomping grounds stretch across North Africa, from Morocco and Algeria to Libya and southwest to Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Chad.
Gadhafi and al-Senoussi are both wanted by the ICC for allegedly organizing and ordering attacks in Libya that killed civilians during the revolt against Moammar Gadhafi.
More than a dozen countries in Africa don't recognize the international court, but even some that do ignore its arrest warrants amid criticism that the Hague-based court goes after a disproportionate number of Africans. Sudanese leader Omar al-Bashir, wanted for genocide and war crimes committed in Darfur, attended a conference in Malawi last month with no problem, though Malawi is a member of the ICC.
In the area where Gadhafi is believed hiding, only Algeria is not a signatory. Algeria was a staunch supporter of Moammar Gadhafi and has given refuge to his wife, a daughter and two other sons, but now is trying to establish ties with Libya's new leaders.
Gadhafi is "more problematic than the rest of the family for Algeria," said Libya's ambassador to South Africa, Abdalla Alzubedi.
He said he has no independent information about Gadhafi but said he does believe media reports that his convoy is carrying gold, diamonds and cash -- which could be his passport to freedom.
"I don't doubt that they have a lot of money," Alzubedi said. "They treated Libya like a private estate and their private bank. They could take any amount of money, any amount of gold."
South Africa's Beeld newspaper has quoted local mercenaries as saying a group of guns for hire is protecting Gadhafi. ICC prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo has said South African mercenaries may be trying to spirit Gadhafi away to Zimbabwe, which does not recognize the international court.
Some fear Gadhafi could rally Tuareg fighters, newly and heavily rearmed while they fought to defend his father's regime, to stage an insurgency. Thiam said up to 500 Tuaregs in 130 vehicles had fled Libya to northern Mali after the fall of Moammar Gadhafi's 42-year-old regime. Hundreds of other Tuareg fighters have gone home to Chad and Niger.
Many Tuaregs are furious about how Gadhafi was captured and killed. Mosques in Tuareg towns across the Sahel dedicated last Friday's prayers to the memory of the slain Libyan leader, who used some of Libya's oil wealth to build mosques and religious schools across the region and who glorified the tribes' nomadic lifestyle.
A Western diplomat said Wednesday that he has information suggesting al-Senoussi crossed into northern Mali this week, though he cautioned that "a man like this could create false leads for people to follow." A Tuareg source said al-Senoussi was in northwest Mali on Monday.
On Oct. 28, a Tuareg leader said Gadhafi was nearing the Mali border and could cross into the country that night. These sources spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the subject.
That same day, ICC chief prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo said he was in indirect negotiations with Gadhafi about his possible surrender for trial. Libyan officials then announced that they want Gadhafi.
"We want to try Seif al-Islam in Libya," said military spokesman Col. Ahmed Bani. "He committed his crimes here in Libya. He committed murder. He is our enemy."
Since then, nothing has been heard of Gadhafi.
The ICC has asked all countries to refuse over-flight rights to Gadhafi but the Sahara is dotted with remote landing strips used regularly by smugglers.
Gadhafi himself never spoke of leaving his homeland.
"We have Plan A, Plan B, Plan C. Plan A is to live and die in Libya. Plan B is to live and die in Libya. Plan C is to live and die in Libya," he told CNN Turk after rebels took the Libyan city of Benghazi in February.
When the rebels stormed into Tripoli on Aug. 23, they soon announced that they had captured Seif al-Islam. But he turned up in the middle of the night at the luxury Rixos Hotel where journalists were confined, flashing a big smile and a V-for victory sign.
Appearing confident and defiant, he got into a white limousine escorted by armoured SUVs and took reporters on a tour of "the hottest spots in Tripoli."
That's the last time he was seen in public -- wearing a full beard in place of his usual stubble and dressed in camouflage trousers and a green T-shirt.
