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Pema Tseden, a renowned Tibetan filmmaker best known for the
films "Tharlo" and "Old Dog", was detained at an airport in
western China on Saturday, the Film Directors' Guild of China
said in a statement posted to its official microblog account. It
was not immediately clear why.
He was badly hurt in the course of his detention, the statement
added, and was then taken to hospital in the western Chinese
city of Xining on Monday. Police in Xining did not respond to
repeated calls for comment and Pema Tseden could not be reached.
Pema Tseden is China's first director to make films entirely in
the Tibetan language. His work has won many prizes at home and
are not critical of Beijing's rule over Tibet.
Rights groups say China, which took control of Tibet in 1950,
has tried to stamp out religious freedom and culture in the
Himalayan region. China rejects the criticism, saying its rule
has ended serfdom and brought development.
People with knowledge of the case told Reuters they believed
police had not recognized the director and detained him after a
dispute over luggage at the airport.
"(We) call on the relevant authorities to quickly respond to the
association's concern, and make public the whole story of this
incident, including the reason for police taking forceful
measures," the guild said in a statement.
Abuses by Chinese police departments, which are largely
unregulated, are common in China, but this case generated
unusual fervor on social media networks because of the
director's fame. Tibetans on Chinese social media networks
called for calm.
In May, there was a major public outcry after an
environmentalist who had graduated from a prestigious Beijing
university died in police custody.
(Reporting by Megha Rajagopalan; Editing by Nick Macfie)
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