Gaddafi whereabouts a mystery as rebels close in

LONDON,  (Reuters) – Muammar Gaddafi, who for decades  enjoyed strutting before the public in his finery, has  disappeared from the stage as rebels take over his former  stronghold Tripoli.
The rebels want to get their hands on him and so does the  International Criminal Court. But they must find him first.
Gaddafi has not been seen in public since mid-June. His foes  speculate he may not be in the Libyan capital or even in the  country. As rebel fortunes have risen, his long televised  speeches at boisterous public meetings have given way to  scratchy telephone appeals from unknown hideouts.
Over his 41-year-rule, Gaddafi created a personality cult,  with his image festooned in banners and posters all over Libya  and his philosophy spelled out in a ‘Green Book’. He presented  himself as a father of the nation and, on the international  stage, a warrior against colonialism and a campaigner first for  pan-Arab and then pan-African interests.
He undoubtedly enjoyed a measure of popular support, so  catching him and demonstrating to the people that his reign is  well and truly over will be crucial for the next government.
French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, whose government has  been in the forefront of the international effort to oust  Gaddafi, said on Monday that Paris did not know where he was.     British Prime Minister David Cameron said London had no  confirmation of his whereabouts either.
If he has fled Tripoli, one possible bolt-hole would be  Sirte, his home region, where he could still find some support  and sympathy.
At one point early in the uprising, Britain said he was  thought to be on his way to Venezuela and the welcoming arms of  his friend Hugo Chavez.
That proved to be false, but in the past week rumours that a  Venezuelan plane was at a Libyan airport fueled renewed  speculation that he might head for that exit door.
If he is still in Tripoli, it likely to be a bunker in a  military compound. Two of his sons, Saif Al-Islam and Mohammed  have already been captured, but loyal troops were still putting  up fierce resistance at several parts of the city on Monday.
Another son, Al-Mutassim, was reported by al-Arabiya TV to  be in the Bab al-Azizya compound in Tripoli.
Gaddafi was last seen in public on June 12, meeting the   president of the International Chess Federation, Russian Kirsan  Ilyumzhinov, who said then that the leader told him he had no  intention of leaving the country.
In the first few months of the uprising, the flamboyant  69-year-old made several spontaneous and often bizarre public  appearances in Tripoli to rally support and spout defiance.
Once he turned out in a golf buggy, wearing brown Bedouin  robes and holding aloft an umbrella. At other times he made  speeches amidst the ruins of a palace bombed by the Americans in  1986, threatening to hunt down his opponents “alley by alley.”
Invariably, he vowed to stay and fight to the death.