Života Panić

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General 'Života Panić' (Cyrillic: Живота Панић) (born November 3rd, 1933 in Gornja Crnisava, Yugoslavia died November 19th, 2003 in Belgrade, Serbia and Montenegro) was the last acting minister of defence amd army chief of staff in the Yugoslav government. Života Panić held the rank of General, he was in charge of the Yugoslav people's army after the resignation of general Blagoje Adžić in 1992. Panić was in office from until the dissolution of former yugoslavia in 1992. Panić held the rank of Chief of Staff in the successor to SFRY, the FRY until 1993 when he was sacked for scandals relating to his son Goran Panić who was supplying the army at supposed inflated prices.

Panić graduated from Yugoslavian military school as a tank commander and gradually rose through the ranks of the JNA through the 1970s and 1980s. He was given authority over the 1st Army District (Belgrade) and was the senior officer in charge of the units which fought in the battle of Vukovar.

When the complete dissolution of former Yugoslavia was steadily occurring around April 27, 1992, Panić's position was no longer applicable to the current political problems and complications. He was offered a position of Chief of Staff in the new VJ (Vojska Jugoslavije). Part of the reason that Panić was selected by Slobodan Milosević as the army chief of staff was that he was a Serb born in Serbia unlike his predecessors who were not, the reason for this was that the union of Serbia and Montenegro (Then still Yugoslavia) was trying to wash it's hands of the conflicts in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia.

Panić was beginning to re-align the Yugoslav army in 1993 with new battle-plans and strategies, but was not prepared for the political power struggles that were occurring in Belgrade at the time. Vojislav Koštunica (who was with the Serb Radical Party at the time) argued that Panić was abusing his position and should not be in charge of the military any longer. He died in Belgrade on November 19th, 2003.