Jakarta – More than 40,000 refugees packed camps in Indonesia's Aceh province Saturday, an official said, after fleeing their villages out of fear of continuing violence between soldiers and rebels.

A preliminary count of the refugees in Pidie disctrict showed 44,740 people had fled, said the official who asked to remain anonymous.

"For some it is their 10th day of living as refugees while for others it has only been some six days, but none are prepared to return home," the official told AFP by telephone from the town of Sigli.

He said the bulk of the refugees came from the Tangse sub-district. Tangse subdistrict chief Yusri was quoted by the Kompas daily on Friday as describing the area as "practically empty".

Human rights activists have said the refugees left their homes fearing violence between soldiers and members of the Aceh Merdeka (Free Aceh) separatist movement.

Officials have provided uncooked rice and other foodstuffs to them. Most refugees staying in open tents, or in the grounds of mosques or schools. "It's really sad to see the conditions of the places that they are living in, especially when it rains," said the refugee official.

Pidie is one of three Aceh districts, along with East Aceh and North Aceh, most affected by violence involving soldiers and the rebels. Rebels have set fire to hundreds of houses, schools and public facilities in Aceh in recent months.

The province has seen a decade of violent military operations against the Aceh Merdeka, which has been fighting for an Islamic state since the mid-1970s. The military operations ended last year, amid accusations of widespread human rights violations by the military.

But violence which has erupted again in the areas since early May has already left more than 80 dead.

The Commission for Missing Persons and Victims of Violence (Kontras) said several rape cases involving soldiers had been reported since security forces were deployed again in Aceh in May, the Jakarta Post reported Saturday.

"At least seven women between 16 and 30 years of age were raped in North Aceh in the last three weeks," Kontras coordinator Munir was quoted as saying.

"We still need to investigate further, but we have received reports from a number of local non-governmental organizations saying these acts were committed by security personnel," he added.

[On July 11 AFP reported that a retired captain, Rahmat Raden, 60, former chief of a subdistrict military command, was shot dead on July 10 by two men riding on a motorcycle in Panton Labu, North Aceh - James Balowski.]