Dalj

History

One Scordisci archaeological site in Dalj dating back to late La Tène culture was excavated in the 1970s and 1980s as a part of rescue excavations in eastern Croatia. The archaeological site was a part of the settlement network of Scordisci in the area of Vinkovci. During the Croatian War of Independence, the village became the site of the Dalj massacre - killing of 39 prisoners of war in August 1991. The prisoners were Croatian policemen, Croatian National Guard troops and Civil defencemen and killed after the Yugoslav People's Army and Serbian paramilitaries captured Dalj on 1 August. Goran Hadžić, Croatian Serb political leader at the time, was charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in relation to these atrocities. The ICTY also charged Hadžić with illegal detention of hundreds of civilians in Dalj police station and a hangar near village's railway station. The detainees were beaten and otherwise physically abused. After Hadžić was diagnosed with a terminal illness, his trial was discontinued in 2015. He died in July 2016.