Narrow escapes for CNN reporter in Myanmar

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.