FORT BRAGG, North Carolina, Aug 6 (AFP) - A US military policeman described by Iraqi detainees at Abu Ghraib prison as their "saviour," testified here Friday to the appalling conditions at the facility.
"Hell," Sergeant Hydrue Joiner responded when asked to sum up his opinion of the jail at the center of a prisoner abuse scandal.
Joiner was testifying on the fourth day of a special hearing for Private Lynndie England, one of six people facing a possible court martial for mistreating detainees.
England, 21, faces 19 counts of abusing Iraqi inmates, discrediting the army and other charges stemming from her service as an army reservist with a military police unit in Abu Ghraib prison late last year.
Joiner, who gave his testimony by telephone from Fort Lee in Virginia, said he used to bring detainees army-issued toothpaste and soap, because of the absence of basic supplies in the prison.
"There weren't any, they didn't exist," he said, adding that the military personnel at Abu Ghraib were acting without any real operational guidelines.
"No one knew what we were supposed to do," Joiner said. "I was just shooting from the hip."
In earlier testimony at the hearing, an army investigator had said how inmates he interviewed had called Joiner their "saviour" and had prayed for his arrival on the day-shift.
The hearing will determine whether to order a court-martial for England, who is probably the best-known defendant in the abuse scandal because of a notorious photograph showing her holding a leash around a naked inmate's neck.
England's lawyers are seeking to prove she was just following orders, and have claimed that Military Intelligence officers encouraged abuse at the prison by military policemen in order to soften up detainees.
Joiner testified that he had received orders from military intelligence, "usually on a blank piece of paper typed up" to put inmates through physical training.