Sydney – The Australian government must take the issue of Papua's right to self-determination to the United Nations, the Greens say.

Greens Senator Bob Brown accused the Howard government of hypocrisy over the issue, and called on Foreign Minister Alexander Downer to stand by Australia's international human rights obligations.

"It's time that this government had the gumption to take the matter of the right of the West Papuans to an act of self-determination to the United Nations," Senator Brown told reporters.

"The Howard government talks about liberty and democracy, is prepared to take part in the Bush invasion of Iraq for liberty and democracy, but when it comes to our neighbours it turns its back on liberty and democracy.

"The West Papuans have a right to self-determination, as did the East Timorese, and Alexander Downer should be standing up for that right, which Australians believe in."

Senator Brown said Indonesia's decision to recall its ambassador was "petulant". He said the country must expect that its crackdown on Papua would damage bilateral relations.

Indonesian Ambassador to Australia Mohammad Hamzah Thayeb was yesterday ordered home. The announcement came less 24 hours after a senior Indonesian foreign ministry official delivered a formal protest to Australian Ambassador Bill Farmer in Jakarta.

Jakarta had lobbied Canberra for weeks to return a group of 43 Papuans, who landed by boat at Cape York in January. But the federal government has decided to grant temporary protection visas to 42 of them.

The asylum seekers claim genocide by Indonesian security forces in Papua, a former Dutch colony which Jakarta forcibly took control of ahead of a 1969 UN-backed vote widely seen as rigged.

"The Indonesian government has to expect that it will damage relations with neighbours when it uses its armed forces to crack down on people expressing their wish for... all those things that we expect should be available to all citizens of the world under the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights," Senator Brown said.

Australia needed to show real strength against Jakarta over the "bloody crackdown" on Papua if it wished to avoid an influx of asylum seekers, Senator Brown said.