( CNN ) -- A court in southwestern China has given heavy sentences to two ethnic Tibetans convicted of murder for `` inciting '' people to set themselves of fire , state media reported Thursday . Self-immolation has become a dramatic and harrowing form of protest in recent years for ethnic Tibetans unhappy with Chinese rule . Opinion : Tibetans reject Chinese rule with one voice . Beijing has taken a tough line on the protesters and their associates , accusing the Dalai Lama , the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader , of fomenting unrest inside Chinese borders . The court in Sichuan province on Thursday sentenced Lorang Konchok , a 40-year-old monk , to death with a two-year reprieve and stripped him of his political rights for life , the state-run news agency Xinhua reported . It sentenced his nephew , Lorang Tsering , 31 , to 10 years in prison , stripping him of his political rights for three years , the agency said . The court -- in the prefecture of Aba , a Tibetan autonomous area in Sichuan -- convicted the two men of encouraging eight people to self-immolate , three of whom died as a result , Xinhua reported . How many more Tibetans will sacrifice themselves ? The other five people did n't go through with the act , either because they chose to abandon the plan or because police intervened , the court found , according to Xinhua . Accusations against the Dalai Lama . Speaking at a regular news briefing in Beijing , Hong Lei , a spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry said Chinese authorities hoped that with the verdict Thursday , `` the international community will be able to clearly see the evil , malicious methods of the Dalai clique in the self-immolations and condemn their crimes . '' By December 2012 , 95 Tibetans had set themselves on fire , with 28 self-immolations in November alone when China 's political elite ushered in its next generation of leaders during its Communist Party Congress . At least 81 of the 95 self-immolators died , according to the International Tibet Network , a coalition of some 150 pro-Tibet groups . Independently verifying the reported self-immolations is difficult because of Chinese restrictions on reporting from the restive areas , and the reluctance of local officials to comment on the accounts provided by foreign-based Tibetan advocacy groups . Beijing rejects accusations of oppression , saying that under its rule , living standards have greatly improved for the Tibetan people . It makes centuries-old historical claims on the region . The Dalai Lama , who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising , has long denied China 's assertion that he 's seeking Tibetan independence . He says he wants only an autonomy that would offer protection for their traditional Buddhist culture .
The court says the two Tibetans encouraged others to self-immolate . It sentences one of them to death , with a two-year reprieve . China says the verdict shows the Dalai Lama 's role in the Tibetan unrest . The Dalai Lama has long denied assertions he 's seeking Tibetan independence .