A U.N.-backed court Wednesday found three former leaders of a Sierra Leone junta guilty of war crimes, the first convictions stemming from the country's decade-long civil war.

The court found the three defendants guilty of 11 of the 14 charges, including acts of terrorism, using child soldiers, enslavement, rape and murder, among others. They were acquitted of charges of sexual slavery and "other inhumane acts," said Peter Andersen, spokesman for the Sierra Leone Special Court.

The tribunal was set up following the end of fighting in 2002 to prosecute the worst offenders in a conflict that ravaged the small West African nation and spilled over into neighboring Liberia. The court has indicted 12 people, including former Liberian President Charles Taylor, who is charged with backing Sierra Leonean rebels.

The three convicted Wednesday were accused of heading a junta that raped women, burned villages, conscripted thousands of child soldiers and forced others to work as laborers in diamond mines. They had pleaded not guilty to all the charges.

The court will now look to its next dramatic event on June 25, when the trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor continues in The Hague. While Brima, Kamara and Kanu were tried in Freetown, Sierra Leone, Taylor's case was moved to the Netherlands due to its high profile and fears that it would reignite clashes in the war-torn west African region.

The United Nations-backed special court for Sierra Leone has indicted eight other men on similar charges, allegedly associated with Sierra Leone's three former warring factions – the AFRC, the Civil Defense Forces, and the Revolutionary United Front.