Melissa Hawach

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Melissa Hawach is the Canadian-Australian estranged wife of Lebanese-Australian Joseph Hawach, and the mother of Hannah and Cedar Hawach. Mrs Hawach's story began on July 15 2006 when her estranged husband Joe disappeared with their daughters part-way through an authorized three-week holiday to Sydney to visit his family. Two days later, a distraught Mrs. Hawach was told by one of his family that "Joe has gone to the Middle East with the girls, and I don't think he is coming back. Canadian authorities confirmed that Mr Hawach, 32, had taken his daughters across the border from Syria into bomb-ravaged Lebanon on July 22 - a day after a Canadian court awarded Mrs Hawach sole custody of her children, and just 10 days after Lebanon and Israel went to war. Mr Hawach was charged with two counts of child abduction and international warrants were issued for his arrest. WITHIN weeks, he made a rare phone call to his wife of six years from Lebanon and demanded sole custody of Hannah and Cedar in a "parenting agreement that would return them to Australia and prohibit them leaving until they were 16. If she agreed, she would see her children. "He was just cold, Mrs Hawach said. "This wasn't typical in parental abductions - you just don't get phone calls back and demands. "It became like a kidnapping negotiation rather than an actual parental abduction. The anguished mother also spoke to her elder daughter for the first time since she and her little sister disappeared. "She was confused. Joe told them that I had left them, Mrs Hawach said, her voice choked with a mixture of hurt at her husband's lies and pride at her daughter's strength of character. "But Hannie seeks the truth. She knows when she's being fed malarkey. "So it wouldn't have made sense to her that Mummy had left them when she had gotten on two airplanes and gone to a country where she didn't even speak the same language. "I just wanted her to know that I loved her, and I said: 'Make sure you tell Cedar that I love her and miss her. ON December 13, Mrs Hawach and her father, Jim Engdahl, flew to Lebanon in a bid to have the local courts recognise her Canadian custody rights and investigate a tip-off from a tourist that her daughters were at the al-Rimal Resort, in Jounieh. When the Lebanese courts failed her, Mrs Hawach moved to her plan of last resort. She hired a local private investigator who discovered that Mr Hawach's uncle owned a unit at the resort. She also had the help of a Canadian investigator with the Missing Children Society of Canada and a team of local lawyers, as well as Brian Corrigan, a former Australian soldier with the elite 3RAR parachute regiment. Corrigan teamed with David Bruce Pemberton, a New Zealand-born former Special Air Service trooper. They put the resort under surveillance, and soon found Hannah and Cedar were there with their father. ON December 20, Corrigan and Pemberton smuggled Mrs Hawach into the resort, where she watched her daughters playing unsupervised for four hours. Her lawyers in Beirut advised her to do nothing for fear of her husband's reaction, and a crushed Mrs Hawach left without Hannah and Cedar. "I cried all night. I just kept saying: 'That was such a mistake. I've made the biggest mistake of my life if I've lost them now for ever. After a horror night, a shattered Mrs Hawach was determined to retrieve her girls. She returned the following day with Corrigan, Pemberton and two other former soldiers at 7am. Hannah and Cedar returned from school at about 4pm and at about 4.30pm they came outside to play. "I just walked out, slow as you please, and just stood there watching for a little bit, their elated but calm mother said. The men stayed in the background and were not involved. Having been married to Joe and knowing him so well, she was sure he was upstairs lying down watching TV. "Then I called to Hannie. I said, 'Hannie, Hannie', and she turned and looked at me. "I had Hannie in my arms and was holding Cedar's hand, and I said: 'We're gonna go now, we're gonna go visit Bumpy (the girls' grandfather)'. "And we're going to talk to Dad a bit later. I'll tell Dad later. "And that was it. There was no rush, no grab. It was unbelievable, actually, how smooth it was. "We walked out and got in the van and left. And they were as good as gold. They were so happy. "It was just like everything we had been planning for, and hoping for. It all just came together all at once. It was just surreal. "It was absolutely surreal. "It was just amazing. There were no tears. "My kids were in my arms. MRS Hawach spent seven weeks "reconnecting with her children, teaching Cedar how to write her name and Hannah how to read a clock. They slept three to a bed in the homes of "complete strangers in Lebanese villages. But her children were desperate to return to Canada. "Hannah couldn't understand why we weren't just getting on a plane and going home. "She was worried about being tricked again. She kept saying that her daddy had tricked her.

But Mrs Hawach doesn't want to turn her daughters against their father who remains in Lebanon. "I just explained to Hannah that when her daddy took them, my heart broke into two pieces. Now that I have them back, it's being mended. And we're going to do our best not to do the same to Dad.

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