By Christo Johnson

FREETOWN, June 20 (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's special war crimes court hands down its first verdicts on Wednesday against three leaders of a militia accused of hacking the limbs off civilians and carving its initials into their bodies.

The Special Court for Sierra Leone was set up jointly by the former British colony's government and the United Nations in 2002 to try those deemed most responsible for human rights violations during the later stages of a 1991-2002 civil war.

Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu were commanders of the Armed Forces Revolutionary Council (AFRC), former government soldiers who split from the army and sided with the RUF rebels during the conflict.

"Captured women and girls were raped ... AFRC/RUF also physically mutilated men, women and children, including carving 'AFRC' and 'RUF' on their bodies," the prosecution said in its indictment against them.

"Many civilians saw these crimes committed. Others returned to their homes or places of refuge to find the results of these crimes -- dead bodies, mutilated victims and looted and burnt property," the indictment said.

The AFRC staged a coup on May 25, 1997, ousting President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah just six months after he signed a peace deal. They then joined with the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) rebels in a bid to gain control of Sierra Leone's diamond mines.

The prosecution says Brima, Kamara and Kanu acted in concert with former Liberian President Charles Taylor, himself on trial at a special sitting of the court in The Hague, Netherlands.

The charges against the three men include unlawful killings, abductions, forced labour, sexual violence and the use of child soldiers during a campaign of terror against civilians.

All three pleaded not guilty.

CHILD SOLDIERS

The Special Court for Sierra Leone initially issued 13 indictments against leaders from all three of the main warring factions during Sierra Leone's conflict, but three suspects have since died and the whereabouts of one is unknown.

All trials are held in the capital Freetown except for that of Taylor, who is being tried in the Netherlands to prevent unrest in West Africa.

The prosecution lists towns and villages around Sierra Leone where fighters hacked civilians to death, kidnapped others and took them to bases with names like "Superman Camp".

Children were routinely abducted, trained in camps around the country and forced to fight, while others were forced to work as diamond miners, the prosecution says.

Forces loyal to President Kabbah forced the AFRC/RUF junta from power in February 1998 and his government returned the next month, but hostilities continued, including subsequent attacks by junta fighters on the capital Freetown.

British military intervention to back up U.N. peacekeepers checked the rebel advance in 2000, helping to end a decade of war in which an estimated 50,000 people were killed.

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