Shuto (Suto) Orizari

   Popularly called Shutka. Shutka is a satellite town outside Skopje in Macedonia. It grew rapidly after the Skopje earthquake of 1963 when large numbers of Gypsies from the town were resettled there in houses donated by foreign governments. Numbers increased further as the result of a decision by Gypsies themselves to leave the old Gypsy quarter of Topana and move into the new town. By the mid-1970s Shuto Orizari had its own district council, offices, a cinema, and a soccer field. Some 5,000 more houses were subsequently built, assisted by the granting of free building land and flexible town planning regulations, and it became the only place in Europe where Gypsies were not a minority. The estimated population in 1977 was 40,000 and is now perhaps double this. The inhabitants are 90 percent Romany. However, facilities in Shutka are poor. There is one ambulance, and specialist medical care is lacking while the standard of education in the two primary schools is low.