Jakarta – The country's booming paper industry is responsible for widespread attacks on indigenous communities in Sumatra, said a Human Rights Watch report released Monday.

According to the report, which was quoted by AFP, police are helping suppress protests against the seizure of forest land.

Land seizures and "brutal" assaults on local residents were commonplace and the human rights group urged international donors to Indonesia to pressureJakarta into taking action.

The Consultative Group on Indonesia, a major donor meeting convened by the World Bank, is scheduled for later this month in Bali.

"Donors should urge President Megawati Sukarnoputri and her government to take immediate steps to end these abuses," said Mike Jendrzejczyk, WashingtonDirector of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division.

Pulp and paper industry here has rapidly expanded since the late 1980s to become one of the world's top 10 producers.

But the industry has accumulated debts of more than 20 billion dollars and Human Rights Watch said expanding demand was consuming wide swathes ofSumatra's lowland tropical forests.

Environmentalists have predicted that Sumatra's forests would disappear in 2005 due to rampant deforestation. Much of the land is claimed by indigenous communities, who depend on it for rice farming and rubber tapping.