European Union (EU) ambassadors to Nepal on Monday urged Prime Minister Surya Bahadur Thapa to improve the kingdom’s human rights record and reach a new ceasefire with Maoist rebels, a report said quoting diplomatic sources.

According to the news report posted in the website – eubusiness.com on Monday, the ambassadors met with the Premier and told him about the need to resolve the “political and parliamentary crisis” in Nepal.

“The EU reiterates its call for the establishment of a multi-party government. It strongly encourages Nepal and the Maoists to enter a ceasefire agreement and to initiate a peace process,” the news report said, quoting a French embassy statement.

“The human rights situation in Nepal is ‘seriously deteriorating’,” the statement said.

“The EU calls on Nepal to take urgent steps to significantly improve the observance of human rights in conformity of its international obligations,” it added.

In particular, the envoys called for clarification on the deaths of 19 Maoists in Ramechhap district in August, according to the website report.

Maoists unilaterally pulled out of the seven-month old ceasefire after it was reported by rights activists that the army murdered the 19 un-armed Maoists in Ramechhap after taking them into control.

The army, on the other hand, has been refuting the report, saying, those Maoists were killed in a crossfire.