Yaoundé, Cameroon—

Gabonese police said a crime wave hit the capital Libreville days after the country’s transitional president pardoned and released more than 500 prisoners. Civil society groups launched a campaign on Tuesday calling on the government to give former prisoners more support and for freed prisoners to become law-abiding citizens.

Gen. Jean Germain Effayong Onong, commander-in-chief of Gabon’s prison service, told Gabonese state television that criminal prisoners arrested would either be punished or sent back to prison.

Onon said the country’s transitional government, led by General Bris Clotel Origi Nguema, wants civilians to live in peace and carry out their daily activities with complete freedom.

About a week ago, the government released more than 560 of the nearly 4,000 inmates at Libreville Central Prison.

President Origi, who seized power from President Ali Ben Bongo after a disputed election last August, pledged in December to free more than 1,000 prisoners. Most, he said, were civilians who had been unjustly imprisoned by Gabon’s former leaders. The general said most of the prisoners were held in long-term pretrial detention without any evidence of wrongdoing.

Presidential pardons do not apply to inmates convicted of drug-related crimes or violent crimes.

However, Gabonese police reported this week that many people who had regained their freedom after presidential clemency had been arrested on suspicion of crimes including theft, assault and highway robbery.

Firman Ollo’o Obiang is the Secretary-General of SOS Prisoners, a non-governmental organization dedicated to the welfare of prisoners in Gabon.

Obiang said it was very surprising that less than two weeks after regaining his freedom, the hard-won former prisoner was arrested by the police for a crime. Obiang said his organization is providing moral and financial assistance to poor and unemployed civilians released by Gabon’s transitional government while they wait for families and the government to reintegrate released prisoners socially and economically into society.

Obiang did not disclose how much financial assistance the SOS prisoner organization provided to released prisoners.

Human rights groups and SOS prisoners blame the crime wave reported by Gabonese police on unemployment, high living costs and poverty.

They also said that if Gabon’s prisons were the correctional facilities they were supposed to be, the released prisoners would not be involved in crime.

Stanislas Kouma is Gabon’s Director of Prison Affairs.

Couma said Gabon’s transitional government was planning to improve the living conditions of prisoners while in prison and once they eventually regain freedom. He said the situation worsened during the tenure of ousted President Ali Bongo Ondimba.

Couma said Gabon’s central prison in Libreville has room for fewer than 1,000 prisoners, compared with about 4,000 when General Origi seized power in an Aug. 30 coup.

Shortly after the coup, President Origi released several political prisoners who had been imprisoned for years without trial.

Members of the release include Jean-Remy Yama, leader of the Gabonese National Union of Workers Union, Renaud Alojo Acué, former director-general of the Gabon National Social Insurance and Health Fund, and Lay, the former mayor of Libreville, the capital of Gabon. Andre Nzuey.

Hundreds of lesser-known prisoners pardoned by Origi are scheduled to be released by the end of April.