Taxi boat pilots want promise kept

AMBON, Maluku: About 70 water taxi pilots staged a protest on Tuesday in front of the office of Maluku Governor, demanding the government keep its promise to provide them with soft loans.

The pilots complained their earnings had dropped significantly after the situation in Maluku had returned to normal, following sectarian conflict in the province in 1999 and 2000.

During the conflict, the pilots' income increased as people chose their water taxi service over land transportation to avoid hostile areas.

"After our last protest the Maluku government promised to give us soft loans so we could start other businesses. Now we are here again to demand the fulfillment of this promise," a protester, Abdul Jalil Pasilete, 42, said. -- JP