General Panic
General Zivota Panic rose steadily through the Yugoslav Army ranks in 1970s and 1980s. He was appointed Army Chief of Staff in May 1992. During the war with Croatia in 1991, he had been responsible for the three-month seige of Vukovar, and was eventually charged with war crimes by the Croatian courts in 2003.
Another Panic
In 1992 Milan Panic was Yugoslavia's newly-appointed prime minister. During a power struggle with President Slobodan Milosevic, Prime Minister Panic (not related to his chief of staff) reportedly suggested to General Panic, his tennis partner, that the army should arrest Milosevic while he was having a late-night drink at the Prime Minister's home.
End of Panic
It didn't happen, Milosevic staved off the threat to his position, and moved against the plotters. In 1993 General Panic was implicated in charges of corruption - his son had been selling over-priced toilet paper to the Army - and was dismissed.
He did not stand trial on the war crimes charges, as he died at the end of 2003, a few months after they were laid.
Thanks to The Independent obituary, 6 December 2003.
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