China has detained award-winning Tibetan filmmaker Pema Tseden for what Chinese police said was a dispute over baggage at an airport in Qinghai, the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA) said on Thursday.
Tseden is currently receiving treatment in a hospital in the western Chinese city of Xining after "suffering serious injury in police detention". He remains in police custody.
"Pema Tseden is just as vulnerable as every other Tibetan to police brutality and being treated as a second-class citizen in his own country," the CTA said, quoting Tibet advocacy group Free Tibet's director Eleanor Byrne-Rosengren.
"The police know that they can beat, abuse and detain Tibetans at will and with almost total impunity," it said.
"What's happened to Tseden can and does happen anywhere and anytime to Tibetans in Tibet," Byrne-Rosengren said, calling on the authorities to ensure that Tseden receives the medical treatment he needs, and pursue those responsible for his abuse.
A son of Tibetan nomads, Tseden is a renowned award-winning Tibetan filmmaker known for films such as 'Tharlo' and 'Old Dog'.
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He studied at the Beijing Film Academy and made his cinematic debut with 'The Silent Holy Stones', the first feature film to be made entirely in Tibetan.
--IANS
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