BAGHDAD: When the UN imposed import controls on Iraq to close down its weapons programmes the staff of the Baghdad Dairy thought they had little reason to worry.

Since 1958 the privately owned company, boasting one of the best-known trademarks in Iraq, had been a prosperous business producing high-quality milk, cheese, yoghurt and ice cream. After the Gulf war in 1991 it found that most of its equipment and many of the chemicals it relied on from abroad were labelled as potential “dual-use” goods, which could also be used to build nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.

“Our production was paralysed and several of our lines shut for good,” said Adnan Khadir, the dairy’s production manager. “We just couldn’t import what we needed.” Overnight so many production lines ground to a halt that the dairy was forced to close. Hundreds of other apparently innocuous businesses across Iraq suffered the same fate. The issue of dual-use equipment stands at the heart of the standoff between Iraq and the US. Washington insists that many Iraqi sites described officially as civilian projects are still dual-use facilities.

Iraq claimed for years that its largest chemical agent laboratory, al-Muthanna, which made mustard gas and the deadly sarin and tabun, was no more than a pesticide factory. When it was first inspected in 1991 one UN official described the laboratory as “perhaps the most dangerous place on earth”.

The UN tried to shut down these secret factories by putting hundreds of chemicals and pieces of technical equipment on a banned import list, known as the “goods review list”.

The Baghdad Dairy was banned from importing a centrifuge machine, which was to be used to make cream and ice cream. The company still has an old centrifuge machine in its dilapidated factory in eastern Baghdad. UN teams may decide to inspect the premises.

Also banned from the dairy were the chemicals vital to sterilise their equipment. Even yeast was on the list. They were forbidden from importing the machines and paper needed to make the cartons which kept the milk they produced fresh.

“The list is ridiculous. Nearly everything we need is dual-use,” said Mr Khadir. “We believe nothing is impossible and we try to survive. The fate of many families depends on us staying in business.” When the factory finally reopened in 1996 it was able to produce only cream and pasteurised cheese.

Managers had to scour local markets for often low-quality chemicals to replace those banned. Production has fallen from 80 tons a day in 1990 to five tons a day now. Quality has slumped and the staff of 600 has been cut back to 35.—Dawn/The Guardian News Service.