July 7, 1998

Re: Visit to the United States of President of Romania Emil Constantinescu
Confiscation of Properties

Dear President Clinton:

On June 30, 1997, we wrote you about your visit to Romania. (A copy of our June 30, 1997 letter is enclosed herewith). Specifically, we addressed the abuses perpetrated by the former and present Romanian government in connection with the illegal confiscation of private real property. During the communist reign, properties were nationalized, confiscated for political reasons or simply taken from the rightful owners under no pretext at all. These wrongs have not been corrected by the current government.

At the time we wrote you, our organization numbered approximately 300 cases. To date, we have documented over 1,500 cases from United States, Western Europe and Romania (over 700 from the US). Meanwhile, not a single case resulted in the rightful owner regaining possession of his/her property. As American citizens, we ask for your assistance in convincing the Romanian government about the need for immediate action in returning unconditionally all such properties to their owners.

The government has used a number of excuses for its lack of action. For illustration purposes we address the following:

1. The government has rented or sold the illegally obtained properties. Now, the government claims that the properties cannot be returned because they are occupied by renters or the new "owners". Clearly, whether the properties are or are not rented has no bearing on the right of ownership. However, it is no coincidence that many of the renters are former and current government protegees, including government officials, most of them communists. You would be surprised to find out that many of these renters who pay incredibly low, under market rents, have properties of their own, including vacation homes and considerable income. The current government has a vested interest in protecting these renters to the total disregard of one's constitutional right to ownership. Even the Romanian Prime Minister has "purchased" one of the confiscated properties at "bargain" price. If the government was truly concerned about the renters, it could easily fashion a remedy to protect those renters truly in need of protection. The government is instead delaying any action in the hope that the true owners will just tire, die or give up.

2. The government cannot dream up any excuse with regard to forestlands. There are more than 4 million hectares (9 million acres) of forests that belong to private parties. Yet, no forestland has been returned to the rightful owners in the more than 8 years since Ceausescu's demise.

3. To a small extent, some agricultural land has been provided to some farmers. This process was done on an arbitrary basis to the point that many farmers have received land different and of a lesser quality than the land they originally owned. These farmers work the land but have no title to the land. This does not help the agriculture to develop, as the farmers do not have the requisite interest to improve what should otherwise be their own legal land. Moreover, the current Parliament has passed legislation strengthening the development of state owned farms, going back to the disastrous experience of the bankrupt collective farms era.

4. As to the industrial establishments that were nationalized starting with June 11, 1948, there is no plan, intention or any desire to return such establishments to their legal owners. A return to private owners would result in the revitalization of the industry and attraction of foreign capital. However, once again the Romanian government refuses to relinquish control, preferring instead to allow the industry to basically disappear or be transferred to former communist with the right connection and funds stolen from the Romanian people during the communist regime.

Therefore, we ask your intervention with President Emil Constantinescu in demanding that the Romanian government implement the following:

1. immediate and unconditional return of real property, without litigation and free of encumbrances;
2. an accounting and payment of all income produced by the properties;
3. monetary compensation for any properties destroyed or otherwise transformed as to make impossible the actual return of the properties;
4. retribution for all the abuses perpetrated against the property owners.

Your assistance is desperately needed. We are waiting to hear from you.

cc:
Emil Constantinescu, President of Romania
Ion Diaconescu, President of Romania's House of Representatives
Petre Roman, President of Romania's Senate

The current Romanian Government continues to illegally hold and use more than 4 million hectares of forests stolen from private owners 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. This represented about 30% of the total 6.5 million hectares of Romanian forests. The Romanian Statistical Yearbook mentioned above is available at the U.S. National Agricultural Library in 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 princes and Kings.

Toward the end of the II WW, 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 support the demands of the U.S. citizens and permanent residents of Romanian origin regarding the 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 restitution of their properties. Details regarding these properties and the rightful owners could be obtained from Dr. Ioan C. Paltineanu at Tel./Fax 301/725-0604.

Dr. Ioan C. Paltineanu
Former Undersecretary of the
Land Reclamation Department,
Ministry of Agriculture, Romania.