Australian Associated Press

By Trevor Marshallsea of AAP

BEIJING, May 21 AAP - Less than a month after dodging a United Nations motion about its record on human rights issues including Tibet, China has again been condemned for its actions in the contentious region.

Human rights watchdog Amnesty International today said it was appalled by reports which have filtered out over the past few days of a new crackdown by China's central authorities in Tibet.

The reports allege Buddhist nuns and monks, and other Tibetans, were shot and injured in protests over the imposition of a ban on displaying pictures of the region's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

"It's appalling that people have been shot and severely beaten merely for displaying pictures of their spiritual leader," the London-based Amnesty said in a statement.

"Yet again, the Chinese authorities have shown contempt for the Tibetan people's human rights of freedom of religion and peaceful expression."

The heightened tension in Tibet comes less than a month after China, for the sixth successive year, avoided having its human rights record debated at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights session in Geneva.

Having benefited from the support of its aid-dependent allies at the session, China hailed a victory over hegemonism from the west in the defeat of the motion, which was to discuss Beijing's "inadequate protection of Tibet's Buddhist culture", among other issues.

The inaction at the session triggered criticism of the Commission from human rights groups, as well as warnings that peaceful dissidents in China and Tibet may pay the price.

Reports out of Tibet in recent days appear to vindicate those warnings, as well as illustrate China's heightened sensitivity over the Dalai Lama, who is to visit Australia in September.

Amnesty said reports it had received said three monks from a monastery east of Lhasa were shot and wounded on May 7, and that two of them may have been killed.

On May 14, two truckloads of seriously injured people had arrived at a hospital in Lhasa under police escort. The London-based Tibet Information Network said that on that day, 80 people, at least 30 of whom were women, had been injured in a clash with authorities.

"Both incidents are thought to be related to the increasing tension in Tibet since the authorities began to enforce a ban on the display of pictures of the Dalai Lama in monasteries, shops and schools," Amnesty said.

"The monasteries are reported to have been closed, stopping the public entering or monks leaving without permission, in order to prevent unrest spreading.

"Amnesty International is urging the Chinese authorities to immediately release anyone detained for peacefully expressing their beliefs and remove the ban on displaying pictures of the Dalai Lama."

Beijing's bitterness over the Dalai Lama is not only being felt in Tibet, but also by other countries which the exiled spiritual leader has recently visited, or will visit in the near future, including Australia.

China's Ambassador to Australia, Hua Junduo, warned last week that any official contact between Australian leaders and the Dalai Lama would constitute "a very unpleasant episode in our relations".

A similar warning had gone out to Denmark, which hosted the Dalai Lama last week.

Beijing's sensitivity over Tibet and its religious leader has increased since the Dalai Lama was involved in a dispute with Chinese authorities late last year over the choice for Tibet's new Panchen Lama, the region's second-highest religious leader.

Beijing's choice was installed in the position over the Dalai Lama's selection.