Jakarta – Communal violence in several parts of Indonesia has left over three quarters of a million internal refugees across the country, an official of the Population and People's Movement Administration Agency said Tuesday.

Joko Sidik Pramono, the agency's deputy director for migration, told a parliamentary commission that communal violence in the regions had forced 170,142 families, or 760,298 people to seek refuge away from their original homes.

The figures were based on reports from various government offices up to June 15 and covered those who are still in refugee camps or temporary shelter. Another 6,579 families or 29,849 people have already been resettled by the government.

Pramono said that refugees in Aceh, where government forces and separatist rebels have fought since 1976, accounted for 13,115 families or 54,816 people.

Refugees from the ethnic violence, pitting the local Malay and Dayak communities against the migrant community from Madura island, in Sambas district, West Kalimantan last year, stood at 13,287 families or 64,035 people.

More than 15 months of Muslim-Christian violence in the Maluku islands have left 107,910 families or 486,797 people in refugee centres. Another 11,065 refugees have already been resettled by the government.

The violence that followed a UN-held ballot of self determination in East Timor has left 34,692 families or 154,650 people in camps in West Timor and in several other islands.

Another 1,493 familes or 6,840 people have already been resettled outside of East Timor, it said, without mentioning the some 100,000 refugees repatriated to East Timor by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The official breakdown of the total left some 5,000 refugees unaccounted for.