50                          hUMANITARIAN OPERATIONS IN NORTHERN IRAQ, 1991:


birth of Christ. It was still viewed as a troublesome center of Kurdish resistance
by the Iraqi government and had been repeatedly struck by chemical weapons
during Saddam's repression campaigns. in more normal times, Zakho's economic
livelihood was the sheep and goat trade, and a brisk grain business also fueled
the local economic fires.


                                        Painting by Col Peter M. "Mike" Gish, U5MCR
A Kurdish woman stands pensively at a displaced civUian movement center in northern Iraq. The
Kurjs were an ell~nfr minonty that claimed nonhen Iraq as a traditional homeland. Unlike their
Arab neiglibors, Kurdish women went unveiled and wore coloiful, flowing robes decorated with
cotas andjewett.