Posted on 05/09/2008 10:09:31 PM PDT by Hadean
NEW YORK (AP) - A CNN reporter who left Myanmar on Friday was chased by authorities as he reported on the aftermath of Cyclone Nargis but escaped primarily because of the incompetence of the people after him.
Dan Rivers hid under a blanket at one police checkpoint and casually covered up his name on a passport to avoid detection another time. He may ultimately have gotten out of the country due to a stewardess' impatience.
"I was amazed at the lengths they apparently went just to catch me," Rivers told The Associated Press by telephone from Thailand on Saturday.
Rivers' story illustrates the preoccupation of Myanmar's military government with things other than helping the country recover from a storm that killed thousands and left many survivors homeless. Aid groups have reported difficulties in getting badly needed supplies and relief workers into the secretive country.
Rivers sneaked into the country on Monday - he wouldn't say how - and for a day reported the story without saying his name or showing his face onscreen.
CNN, owned by Time Warner Inc., and Rivers then quickly agreed to drop the mask.
"We decided it would have much more impact if I could communicate more directly, if I could look down the barrel of a camera and tell people precisely how bad it was," he said. "I think that type of personal reporting is much more effective than a voiceover on a picture."
But it made him a marked man. A local contact told Rivers' crew the government was looking for him by contacting all hotels where foreigners stayed.
During reporting on Thursday, an immigration official stopped Rivers' group. He took the passports of two crew members and compared them to a picture of Rivers taken from a CNN screen. During the two hours before they were waved on, Rivers said he went to a restaurant and walked the streets, "trying not to look like a white guy with long hair, which was difficult."
The authorities didn't discover the men were from CNN. Knowing his picture was being circulated, Rivers hid under a blanket in the van the next time police checked.
He later resumed reporting away from their van until an official told them to return to their van, where police would be waiting. It was a tough walk.
"There were a lot of things going through our minds then about what we would find at the end of that journey," he said. "At one point I was thinking, `what if they just shot us and threw us into the river and said it was an accident?"'
There were only two policemen waiting. They asked to see Rivers' passport and he casually covered up his first and last names with his thumbs. They radioed Rivers' two middle names back to their bosses.
They were passed on to another government official, who let them go after being convinced they were part of a relief group. Strategic offerings of cigarettes, water and a candy bar helped.
The crew rushed back to the capital city of Yangon.
"I kind of felt that I'd used my nine lives up and it was time to get out of the country," Rivers said. He was afraid for the safety of his Burmese contacts if he were found out and, frankly, didn't want officials spending time searching for him when they had more important things to do.
While on a plane to get out of the country, Rivers was called back to the gate to be searched. He'd been found out. He was thoroughly searched, but fortunately had no pictures with him.
"I thought I was going to get hauled off to some fetid prison for a week," he said.
Eventually, an impatient stewardess demanded authorities make a decision on what to do with Rivers and, thus challenged, put him back on the plane.
Rivers said he hoped to get back in to Myanmar at some point but given the sensitivities it's not likely to be anytime soon.
Dammit!
Just like Africa....they don’t have a food problem..they have a governance problem....and sending liberal goons there to “help” doesn’t do any good....as the libs. spout their commie crap which caused the problems/poverty/starvation in the first place!!!
Couldn’t happen to nicer news organization LOLOLOL!
Wait a minute- I thought that whole hand-writing thing on YouTube was supposed to raise awareness?
I have to say this...I admire the CNN guy...he did have guts. This is something that Katie Couric is not capable of doing, and at least seventy-five percent of the journalists who work for the big networks.
The guy pushed the envelop and did live coverage...traveled around the country with the potential to be shot for just telling a story. Personally...I’d say the guy stands pretty tall in my book.
I agree.
Glad he made it out.
I just cannot fathom how it is that the entire population of Burma isn’t marching on the capital and looking to overthrow the corrupt junta there.
yeah, well the Myanmar junta’s not as bad as the Bush regimes Katrina response </koskids>
Didn’t work out too well for the Cambodian people.
So the story is "CNN reports that brown people are incompetent"?
Wow...Geraldo will have the the envies on over this one. Wonder if he is still standing in front of that Al Capone vault.
I agree also...I think CNN is doing the world a favor covering this story. I am so sick of cable news coverage of FLUFF...I want real news....not the latest on Obama or..... in Fox News's case ....the latest missing woman.
"The guy pushed the envelop and did live coverage...traveled around the country with the potential to be shot for just telling a story. Personally...I’d say the guy stands pretty tall in my book."
I definitely agree. I even commented to my husband that these journalists reporting from hot spots were really taking their lives in their hands. During one report that I saw Dan Rivers do from Myanmar, he was showing the poor desolate people all crammed cheek to jowl into a Buddhist temple. He talked about how the food was limited and the Monks were doing there best to help everyone.The Junta did not want pictures taken of the people or the devastation and yet there they were, doing just that. Not long after, he had to cut the story short because he said that he had just been told that the soldiers were coming. Very tense.
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