(Recasts, changes dateline, byline)

By Nita Bhalla

NEW DELHI, Oct 23 (Reuters) - The United Nations must pressure China over the whereabouts of 32 Tibetans believed to be missing after Chinese border guards shot at them while they were on their way to India, a Tibetan group said on Monday. The 32, mostly children, were missing after Chinese troops fired on a group of 75 Tibetans fleeing across the country's mountainous frontier into Nepal on Sept. 30, killing two people, refugee groups said.

The shooting was captured on video by a group of European mountaineers in the area, at a height of 5,700 metres (18,700 feet).

"We have appealed to the U.N. to put pressure on China as there are around 32 people who are missing after that incident," said Urgen Tenzin, director of the India-based Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy.

"We believe that they have been arrested by the Chinese border guards and we want them to be released," he told Reuters.

Tibet has been ruled by China since communist troops occupied the region in 1950 and Tibetans accuse Beijing of dealing harshly with those among them who press for greater political and religious freedom.

A 17-year-old nun and a man in his early twenties died in the shooting, said Tenzin.

China has said the border guards warned the group about the border crossing and then fired in self-defence when members of the group attacked them. The video shows no such confrontation.

BIG RISK

Activists say this is strong evidence that China is still violating the rights of Tibetans and said it wanted the international community to crack down on Beijing.

Forty-one members of the group who escaped the firing reached the Indian capital on Sunday after their 17-day trek from Lhasa, to the Nepali capital, Kathmandu.

They are expected to travel to the north Indian town of Dharamsala, headquarters of the Tibetan government-in-exile and home of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader who fled into exile in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Activists say around 2,500 Tibetans flee China every year for India, mainly to seek the blessings of the Dalai Lama and pursue education.

Most are from impoverished rural areas where lack of development force people to pay guides around 5,000 yuan ($633) to take them along the treacherous route across the Himalayas into Nepal.

"Most know they are taking a big risk to come to India. There are threats from Chinese guards, but also the extreme freezing conditions and the dangers of climbing steep mountains to get to Nepal," said Tenzin.

Thupten Tsering, a 23-year-old monk, who was part of the group said crossing the border was frightening but he had no choice but to leave Tibet.

"The Chinese government has started a patriotic campaign where they are forcing us to denounce his holiness, the Dalai Lama," Tsering told a news conference.

"But we cannot do this. It bears heavily on our conscience, so I had no alternative but to leave."

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