June 20 (Reuters) - Sierra Leone's special war crimes court handed down its first verdicts on Wednesday, finding three leaders of a militia guilty of war crimes that including killing, raping and mutilating civilians.

The verdicts against Alex Tamba Brima, Brima Bazzy Kamara and Santigie Borbor Kanu stem from charges related to Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war that also target former Liberian President Charles Taylor, facing a separate trial in The Hague.

Here are some key facts about Sierra Leone's 1991-2002 civil war.

* The war began in 1991 when ex-army corporal Foday Sankoh and his Revolutionary United Front took up arms against then President Joseph Momoh, seizing towns near Liberia's border.

* Although the rebels found some popularity at first, they earned a reputation for murder, rape, mutilation and recruiting child soldiers. Other factions also committed atrocities.

* The war was funded partly by diamonds mined in southern and eastern Sierra Leone. This helped lead to a global campaign against so-called blood diamonds mined in conflict zones.

* A group of army officers allied to the rebels overthrew elected President Ahmad Tejan Kabbah in 1997. A Nigerian-led regional force reinstated Kabbah within a year.

* A truce was agreed in 1999 after heavy fighting in Freetown, but it fell apart in 2000. Former colonial power Britain sent troops to help a struggling U.N. force.

* Driven back into the countryside, rebels allowed U.N. troops to deploy to the areas they held in 2001 and disarmament was completed in 2002. The war was formally declared over.

* Kabbah was re-elected in May 2002. The RUF, standing as a political party, won little support in the ballot. Sankoh died in prison in 2003 while facing a war crimes indictment.

* The death toll from the war is estimated at 50,000 in a country that now has more than 6 million people. Sierra Leone was the world's second poorest country in 2006 going by a U.N. ranking.

* Former Liberian President Charles Taylor, was put on trial this month in The Hague on charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Sierra Leone's civil war.

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