American Bar Association/CEELI
740 15th Street, NW
Washington, DC 20005-1022
Phone:(202) 662-1950
Fax: (202) 662-1597

Dear Sir:/Madam:

I have learned that your prestigious American Bar Association will present the CEELI Award at the Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, August 5-11, 1999. CEELI, with the assistance of lawyers, judges, and law professors, help to build the legal infrastructure that is indispensable to strong, self supporting, democratic, free market systems. Romanian people desperately need the highly qualified help and support of the members of the American Bar Association, in order to fully restore the private properties stolen by the communist regime, and still exploited illegally by the current Government and other neocommunist profiteers.

In December 1989,  more than 1000 young anti-Communist revolutionaries were killed, cowardly by still unknown enemies, for their strong belief in God, freedom, liberty and restoration of law in Romania.Unfortunately, changes to a real democratic society are slow, neocommunist parties oppose and delay any democratic initiative, and the sanctity of private property is not fully recognized and warranted by the branches of government and the actual Constitution of Romania.

The current Government of Romania continues to illegally hold and use 4.7 million hectares of forests (75% of total forests) stolen from the millions of rightful private owners by the former communist regime. Original Romanian Statistics (before and after World War II) and other documents are available at the USDA National Agricultural Library, Beltsville, Maryland.

I do hope that Mr. Emil Constantinescu, the democratically elected President of Romania, will have the wisdom, courage and deference to accept the CEELI Award in the name of the 1000 anti communist young people sacrificed for a change to a real democratic society, and also in the name of millions of anti communist political prisoners, detainees, deportees, deposed of private properties, or forced into exile Romanians by the communist and neocommunists regimes.

Also I do hope that our opinions will be taken into consideration in the introductory speech of the representative of the American Bar Association to the CEELI Award.
Attached is the letter to the Honorable Christopher H. Smith, Chairman of the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, with the occasion of the Commission Hearing: The Long Road Home: Struggling for property rights in post communist Europe, March 25,1999,Capitol, Washington D.C.
I will greatly appreciate your answer to this very important problem of restoration of law in Romania.

Sincerely,

Ioan C. Paltineanu, Ph. D. - President
PALTIN International Inc.
6309 Sandy St.
Laurel, MD 20707
Voice & Fax: (301) 725-0604
Email: icpaltin@bellatlantic.net

The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, Chairman
Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
United States House of Representatives
234 Ford House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-6460

Attn.: Mrs. Maureen Walsh

March 17, 1999

Dear Mr. Smith,

I would like to thank you for your support of the American Citizens and the US permanent residents of Romanian origin in their struggling for property rights in post-communist Europe. The House Res. 562, initiated by  you and some of your colleagues, expresses the determination of the House of Representatives to call and urge formerly totalitarian countries to pass and effectively implement lows that provide for restitution of, or compensation for, wrongfully expropriated property.  I am an US permanent resident of Romanian origin, living with my family in Laurel, Maryland. I am claiming, through the Committee for Private Property (CPP), the integral restitution of 4.7 million hectares of forests stolen from millions of rightful private and communal owners, including myself, by the former communist regime in Romania. Please, do include our claim as documentary to the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe at the Commission Hearing (The Long Road Home: Struggling for property rights in post-communist Europe), announced for March 25, 1999.

 The current Romanian Government continues to illegally hold and use 4.7 million hectares (11.6 million acres) of forests stolen from the rightful private owners and communal ownership by the former communist regime.

According to the 1939 and 1940 “Romanian Statistical Yearbook”, published by the Romanian Central Statistical Institute, an area of only 2 million hectares of forests were owned and used by the Romanian state between 1934 and 1939, out of a total area of 6.5 million hectares. After World War II, according to the “Statistical Communications” of the same institute, the Romanian state owned in 1945 only 1.6 million hectares (25%) and private owners and communal ownership 4.7 million hectares (75%). These documents and others are available at the USDA, National Agricultural Library at Beltsville, Maryland. Most of the private forests in Romania had been owned and used for centuries by millions of free mountain people called “mosneni”. These people were organized in special communities called “obstiile mosnenesti”. Their property rights were recognized since the earlier days of the Romanian history, in written documents, by the Romanian prices and Kings.

Toward the end of the World War II, some Romanian communists and internationalists, indoctrinated and trained in the Soviet Union arrived in Romania with the Soviet Army tanks and took power by force. A long and dark period in the history of Romania followed. The lives of millions of free, religious, honest, and hard working people, a good part of them “mosneni,” were ruined. Private properties were illegally confiscated by the communists and innocent people received long years of prison or labor camps sentences. A small number of them were forced into exile.

The collapse in 1989 of the communist system in Romania as well as in other East-European countries brought hopes of a brighter future to millions of people. Unfortunately, changes toward a real democratic society in Romania are slow, and the sanctity of the private property is far from being recognized and warranted by the State and the new Constitution of Romania.

The U.S. Congress and the Administration should continue to support the demands of the U.S. citizens and permanent residents of Romanian origin regarding the integral restitution of their illegally confiscated properties in Romania. No American tax funds should be spent to help Romanian companies owned by the Romanian Government that were formed using stolen properties. The American investors must be made aware of the dangers of investing in such illegally owned properties.

The CPP has received copies of legal documents and a list of 727 mosneni, owners of forests, alpine pastures, and other lands belonging to the “Obstea Mostenilor Campineni-Tesileni” and “Obstea Mosnenilor Buzoieni.” These documents have been submitted to the Romanian authorities in support of the demands of the rightful owners for the integral restitution of their properties.

Sincerely yours,

Ioan C. Paltineanu, Ph. D. - President
PALTIN International Inc.
6309 Sandy St.
Laurel, MD 20707
Voice & Fax: (301) 725-0604
Email: icpaltin@bellatlantic.net

(The claimant is former state secretary (1991-1992) of the Land Reclamation Department, Ministry of Agriculture, Romania)