U.N. chief 'shocked' by top Myanmar general's comments on Rohingya

FILE PHOTO: Rohingya refugees build shelter with bamboo at the Jamtoli camp in the morning in Cox's Bazar, Bangladesh, January 22, 2018. REUTERS/Mohammad Ponir Hossain/File Photo

YANGON (Reuters) - United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres expressed "shock" at comments by Myanmar's military chief in which he said the Rohingya minority shared nothing in common with the rest of the population and that their demand for citizenship had stoked recent violence.

Nearly 700,000 Muslim Rohingya fled to Bangladesh since the military launched a crackdown in Myanmar's western Rakhine state in response to insurgent attacks on security forces in August, according to U.N. estimates. The United States and U.N. have described the operation as ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, which Myanmar denies.