New Zealand Organization Says It Sank Flagship of Greenpeace

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — A group claiming to be combat veterans of Vietnam and conflicts in Africa has claimed responsibility for the sinking of the Greenpeace environmental organization’s flagship, investigators said Saturday.

An unsigned handwritten leaflet delivered to the New Zealand Broadcasting Corp. said the Rainbow Warrior was sunk by the unnamed group Wednesday in Auckland harbor to prevent the Pacific region from becoming “another Lebanon.”

The leaflet, which said “Better Dead Than Red” on its cover, stated: “We’ll crude you all like the Rainbow Warrior. No more Vietnams. Good luck, Rainbow Warrior . . . the Pacific will not be another Lebanon. Remember Angola, Rhodesia, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Lebanon. Remember bombing Belgium, Luxembourg, France, Germany and NATO places . . . and now the Philippines, New Caledonia, Australia and tomorrow in the United States and everywhere. . . .

“We are veterans of Vietnam, Africa, professional and well-trained to strike you where it hurts and to avenge ourselves a hundred-fold on land, sea and air.”

Vic Johnson, president of the New Zealand Vietnam Veterans Assn., said he “totally disassociated” his group from the leaflet.

Police said they did not know who delivered the leaflet, but were investigating it in their search for the people who sank the Rainbow Warrior on Wednesday night with explosives. A Greenpeace photographer was killed in the blast.