The most important war crimes trial in Europe since Nuremberg opens this Tuesday in The Hague. Slobodan Milosevic, once Yugoslavia's dictator, stands indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, and for genocide committed in Bosnia. It is not only his victims who should rejoice that Milosevic is facing justice. His trial is a triumph for the civilized world, which has created a court capable of condemning the most heinous crimes with appropriate gravity and fairness. Milosevic started four wars (Slovenia was the site of the first), which killed 200,000 people and drove 3.5 million from their homes. A longtime Communist Party functionary, he reinvented himself as a nationalist, and rose to power in Yugoslavia selling the ancient dream of a Greater Serbia. He artfully used propaganda and fear to keep Serbs in a nationalist frenzy through war after disastrous war. It was a cynical strategy to maintain his support among Serbs and divert public attention from his corruption and mismanagement. In The Hague, Milosevic has been a most uncooperative defendant in a trial that could last up to two years, according to the prosecutor. He has refused to appoint lawyers or enter pleas, and has treated his court appearances as opportunities to express his contempt for the tribunal and argue that he is the victim of a political sham designed to provide cover for NATO's war crimes.

While unlikely to be a winning legal strategy, this is entirely in keeping with his murderous practice of portraying Serbs as lonely victims who can rely on no one but themselves. Now, he seems to be arguing, he has been betrayed not only by traditional enemies but also by those who once stood by him. He has said he will call as witnesses a panoply of Western leaders, and it is indeed true that many of those applauding his capture were his negotiating partners when he was in power. Inside Serbia, some of his closest allies helped to turn him over to the tribunal. His self-image as a nationalist leader standing up to the West may be all he has left. This month an appeals panel of the tribunal ruled that all the charges should be combined into one trial. This is both sensible and appropriate. Many witnesses in this case will risk their lives by testifying. They should not have to come to The Hague more than once. Moreover, as with the Nazis, Belgrade's wars were not just an assortment of crimes but the fulfillment of a systematic plan to create a Greater Serbia by driving out those of other ethnicities. The scope of its evil is best appreciated when viewed as a piece.

When the UN Security Council established the Yugoslavia tribunal in 1993, few imagined it would ever hold Milosevic. He seemed likely to be in power for life, and the court was weak, established with few resources by Western nations feeling guilty about their failure to intervene in Bosnia before thousands had died.

But despite the failure of NATO forces in Bosnia and Yugoslav officials to arrest indicted war criminals, the court has grown. It has capitalized on its successes to wrest the money from the United Nations and Western governments to do its job. So far the tribunal has tried 31 Serbs, Croats and Muslims - five of them were acquitted - and 43 more people are awaiting trial. It has become an admirably fair tribunal whose judgments have helped to modernize aspects of international law stagnant since Nuremberg, for example ruling that rape is a form of torture and a crime against humanity.

But Milosevic's trial will be its capstone. The tribunal will ultimately be judged on its competence and fairness in this case.