Inciting people to kill themselves is a criminal behavior and constitutes the "crime of murder," a high-ranking Tibetan official said Friday, against the backdrop of a string of self-immolations in ethnic Tibetan areas in recent months.

Losang Gyaltsen, vice chairman of the Tibet Autonomous Region, made the remarks on the sidelines of the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC) in Beijing.

He said some of the self-immolations were masterminded and instigated by overseas secessionists and the "Tibet independence" forces, who had "glorified" the victims by calling them "heroes."

"In accordance with Chinese law, such acts as inciting people to kill themselves constitutes the crime of intentional murder," said Losang Gyaltsen, a delegate to the CPC congress.

"Life is precious. Sacrificing people's lives to achieve ulterior political goals goes against the conscience and morality of human being, and should be strongly condemned," he said.

Qiangba Puncog, also a Party delegate and chairman of the Standing Committee of the People's Congress of the Tibet Autonomous Region, said overseas forces used and sacrificed monks to magnify the effect.

"We are very sad for that," he said. "Killing or using others to commit killing is prohibited in Tibetan Buddhism."

Li Changping, also a delegate to the CPC congress and a Tibetan official from southwest China's Sichuan Province, said the 14th Dalai Lama should be blamed for the self-immolations.

"It is the 14th Dalai Lama that should answer your question about the reason of the self-immolations, because he is the plotter of those incidents," Li, a member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Sichuan Provincial Committee, said when taking questions from the press.

"I was born in Tibetan area and have long worked there. As a Tibetan myself, I have the chance of contacting Tibetan people everyday, including revered lamas," he said.

"Their reactions toward self-immolations went through three phases: at the beginning, they were perplexed and shocked; later they felt the incidents were detestable; now, they are indignant," he said.