Myanmar army chief says Rohingya Muslims "not natives", numbers fleeing exaggerated

A Rohingya refugee man washes in a refugee camp in Palong Khali district, in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh October 12, 2017. REUTERS/Zohra Bensemra

YANGON (Reuters) - Rohingya Muslims are not native to Myanmar, the army chief told the U.S. ambassador in a meeting in which he apparently did not address accusations of abuses by his men and said media was complicit in exaggerating the number of refugees fleeing.

The U.N. human rights office said on Wednesday Myanmar forces had brutally driven out half a million Rohingya from northern Rakhine state to Bangladesh in recent weeks, torching homes, crops and villages to prevent them from returning.