1016 So. Wayne Str. #707 ~ Arlington, VA 22204

Phone/Fax: (703)685-0425

E-mail: vtepordei@hotmail.com

The President of the

American Bar Association/CEELI

740 15th Street, NW

Washington, DC 20005-1022

July 30, 1999

Dear Mr. President,

After learning about the presentation of the 1999 CEELI Award to Dr. Emil Constantinescu, the President of Romania, on August 7, 1991 in Atlanta, GA, at your Association Annual Meeting, I decided to write to you and express my astonishment and disappointment regarding this award. Looks like those who decided to grant this award to President Constantinescu know very little about the current situation in Romania!

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. Most of the Romanian-Americans including me supported in 1996 in many ways “candidate” Emil Constantinescu in his bid to become the President of a “new” Romania. “Candidate Constantinescu” and his Romanian Democratic Convention made a lot of promises regarding democratic changes that were supposed to have been implemented once elected, promises included even in “the Contract with Romania.” Very few of those promises were implemented! For your information, a copy of the original “Contract with Romanian” and its English translation are attached.

In June 1996, “candidate” Emil Constantinescu, while touring the Romanian-American communities said among other things: “The present law 112/95 (regarding the return of confiscated private properties) is an unimaginable abuse, a shame. We will not amend this law. We will totally change it, upholding the fundamental right to property. We will return the confiscated properties by the communist regime and reconfiscated by the Iliescu regime.”

Unfortunately those were just electoral promises! Changes toward a real democratic society in Romania are slow, and the sanctity of private property is far from being recognized and accepted. Millions of acres of land and countless numbers of houses, apartments, and other properties are held, rented, or sold by today’s Romanian officials for the benefit of a few privileged ex-communists or even the Romanian Government itself. Significantly more illegally confiscated houses were sold in Romania in the last three years during the Constantinescu’s governments than in the previous eight years of Iliescu’s regime, even if those properties were being reclaimed through the Romanian courts by the rightful owners. A complete disregard to the “rules of law!”

I red on your Internet Homepage “CEELI in Romania” section, the 6 pages of examples of cooperation between your Association and a wide range of Romanian organizations and institutions. Unfortunately I did not see anything mentioned about the individual rights to private property and the need for restoration of those rights in Romania! Isn’t the American Bar Association interested in a major issue like this?

To document the abuses occurring today in Romania, I am attaching a short description of three cases affecting my own family. I am also attaching an extract from “Valerian Stan’s Report describing illegalities committed since 1989 by the past and current Romanian Governments.” The list of “poor tenants” that purchased illegally confiscated houses is impressive and includes Petre Roman, former Prime Minister and current President of the Romanian Senate; Adrian Severin, former Minister of External Affairs in the first Constantinescu Government; Virgil Magureanu, former Chief of the Romanian Information Services; and Mugur Isarescu, President of the National Bank of Romania. Other well connected individuals like Ion Tiriac, the owner of one of the major Romanian Banks, Victor Halaciu, the former Mayor of Bucharest, and Ilie Ceausescu, a relative of the late Communist Dictator of Romania, are occupying luxury apartments and paying rents ranging from $0.25 to $1.0 a month! Yes, from twenty-five cents to one dollar a month!

I hope that my letter as well as the documents attached will provide your organization with a better understanding of the current problems facing the Romanian people and its Government. By presenting awards to the Romanian politicians for not respecting the “rules of law” and for not recognizing the sanctity of private property which is one of the most basic human rights, your organization proved that it does not understand the major issues facing Romania today. We deeply regret that.

Sincerely,

Valentin V. Tepordei