Things are going from bad to worse as the North Sudan pursues unilateralism and finds it has no allies, fears Asmaa El-Husseini Dousing the fires of the oil terminals and refineries in Mersa Brega and Abjadiya, eastern Libya is no effortless affair. And, on the western front, the forces of the National Transitional Council (NTC) are tightening the noose on Tripoli. The Nafusa Mountains, south of Tripoli, are virtually in the hands of the NTC fighters. They are in control of Zintan, a mountain stronghold in the predominantly ethnic Amazigh heartland, a people traditionally persecuted by the purportedly Pan-Arabist turned Pan-African Gaddafi. The NTC forces are inching closer to Gharyan, one of the largest towns of the region is some 90km south of Tripoli. Further inland, the NTC forces are trying to cut off supply routes from Gaddafi strongholds in southern Libya, or Fezzan, such as Sebha. And in the coastal areas east and west of Tripoli, the NTC forces are closing in. However, even NATO leaders admit that it will take some time before Tripoli is overrun. Gaddafi still has a strong following among ordinary Libyans, and the assassination last week of General Abdel-Fattah Younis, the commander-in-chief of the NTC forces, the so-called Liberation Army. The NTC must be held to account for atrocities committed and for the paucity of credible reform. There is no proof that they will run the country any better than Gaddafi has done for the past 40 years. And as this life and death struggle unfolds for the political control of the oil-rich North African nation of 6.5 million people, it appears that the foundations of the NTC popularity and its democratic credentials may not be as solid as they look in Western eyes. An increasing number of Libyans and Africans now suspect that the NTC is vulnerable and must be made to feel more so. In Benghazi, the seedbed of the NTC uprising, the death toll from political infighting is on the rise. That is why international and regional political pressure must be stepped up. The leaders of the NTC need to know that they will be held accountable and that they will not get away with murder such as they did with General Younis. Fears of further instability should the NTC be forced to negotiate seriously with Gaddafi over a negotiated peaceful settlement to the Libyan political impasse are to put it bluntly overdone. Mixed messages on Gaddafi's right to remain in the country are confusing Libyans, Arabs and Africans. The West betrays false cultural values and pretentious ideals as it spreads its democratic credentials. The supposed defection of the deputy interior minister of the Gaddafi regime Nasser Mabrouk Abdallah has not been substantiated. Abdallah is ostensibly in Cairo after fleeing with nine members of his family to the Tunisian island resort of Djerba. It is not confirmed whether he requested political asylum from the Egyptian authorities. In a separate development, the French Foreign Ministry announced that the Libyan government's ministers of health and social affairs -- Ahmed Hegazi and Ibrahim Sherif -- also fled to Djerba were they encountered Libya's Foreign Minister Abdel-Ati Al-Obeidi. It was not clear whether the real reason for their sudden appearance in Djerba was for the purpose of fleeing the clutches of the regime or rather to negotiate a safe exit for Gaddafi or certain members of his family. In any case these decisions that ultimately impact the political future of Libya cannot be made intelligently on a strictly national basis. That aside, now is an odd time to be dillydallying in Djerba.
