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The state is closing Iolani Palace to the public after a Hawaii sovereignty group on Sunday night locked the gates to the grounds with bicycle locks.

The Hawaii Attorney General’s office issued a statement just after 4 p.m. Monday saying the palace would close at 5 p.m. and wouldn’t reopen until Nov. 15, two days after the end of APEC.

“This action has been deemed necessary for the protection of the area and for the safety and welfare of persons and property,” according to the statement. “This is part of the state’s effort to secure and protect several critical state areas during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit.”

About two dozen people associated with Aupuni O Ko Hawaii Pae Aina camped out on Iolani Palace grounds Sunday night.

A woman who says she’s the group’s elected head of state said the group had placed bicycle locks on the 15 gates surrounding the palace grounds around 11 p.m. Sunday for the safety of young children and elderly kupuna after police were called by a palace guard. No one was arrested.

The locks were removed, she said, after William Aila, director of the state Department of Land and Natural Resources said the group could stay over night. “But we were going to stay anyway,” she said.

The palace opened for normal visiting hours Monday morning.

The campout was unplanned and followed a social meeting of about 70 people earlier on Sunday, the woman said. She gave only her first name, Mahealani.

“We took our heirs and we enjoyed a campout on our seat of government land — because it belongs to us,” she told Civil Beat Monday morning. “There was no protest.”

Mahealani, who identifies herself as “her royal majesty,” said the U.S. does not have the authority to host the APEC meetings in Honolulu this week.

Letters were sent last week to APEC’s 21 member countries by Aupuni O Ko Hawaii Pae Aina/Hawaiian Kingdom Government.

“They need to know it’s not the U.S. or the state of Hawaii that controls this land,” Mahealani said. “It belongs to the Kingdom of Hawaii. The governor and the president have no right to host these countries here. I don’t agree with it and it’s wrong.”

The letters, she said, told the countries they have no permission to be in Hawaii.

“Are we in agreement of this APEC? Absolutely not,” Mahealani said. “They are breaking international law — you’re on sovereign land.”

Mahealani said the group won’t leave until the state can prove it owns the title to the palace. The group has been conducting its business on the palace grounds on weekdays for the past three years, she said.

In addition to the APEC letters, last week the group sent out 60 cease-and-desist letters to Hawaii state and Honolulu city government officials and departments, including the governor, mayor and Honolulu Police Department. A letter also was sent to the nonprofit Friends of Iolani Palace, which operates the palace.

“It’s the right of a government to shut down any operation,” she said, calling it her duty as head of state to send out the cease-and-desist notices.

Asked what she wants accomplished, Mahealani said she wants the state Board of Land and Natural Resources to call an emergency meeting and cancel a five-year lease agreement it has with the Friends of Iolani Palace.

“We don’t need permission to be here, but if they don’t cancel the lease, we’ll come in and operate,” she said. “We’ll bring our desks.”

The group holds that the laws of the Kindgom of Hawaii — the penal code of 1869 and civil code of 1859 — need to be honored.

“While you are occupying the land of another country, you are bound by the civil and penal laws of the land, and occupational laws,” she said. “The U.S. can’t come in here and strip the identity we hold so dearly as a people. Enough is enough.”

She put the number of people registered with Aupuni O Ko Hawaii Pae Aina/Hawaiian Kingdom Government at “several thousand,” which includes kanaka maoli (Native Hawaiians) and non-Native Hawaiians.

The group also occupied the palace grounds .

To understand more about the group, the following is the text of a statement it issued:

“The lawfully recognized government of the Kingdom of Hawaii has secured the Iolani Palace. Iolani Palace is and has always been the seat of government of the Hawaiian Kingdom.

The Hawaiian Kingdom has been belligerently occupied since 1893 by the military of the United States of America.

On Monday October 31, 2010 the Marshall of Aupuni o Ko Hawaii Pae Aina, Hawaiian Kingdom government began serving orders to the various corporations established by the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

The Admiral Robert Willard of the Pacific Naval Base was the first to be served. Several others orders were served by the Kingdom’s Marshall His Higness Nakolomona. The Governor Neil Abercrombie, along with both the Police and Sheriff’s departments. The legislative body also received the notices.

The last to be served were the Friends of Iolani Palace, a non profit organization that has been occupying the seat of government.

The Hawaiian Kingdom government was recognized on April 16, 2008 by the legislative body of the State of Hawaii.

The occupying UNITED STATES OF AMERICA has violated numerous laws of military occupation.

Several enforcement agencies arrived at the palace grounds and threatened to remove the Her Majesty Mahealani Head of State, her council and several supporters. However after talking with Mr. William Aila Director of the Department of Land and Natural Resources,his enforcement officers have been ordered to leave and stand down. The chains have been removed from the gate and the Government of Aupuni o Ka Hawaii Pae will reamin on the grounds of Iolani Palace.

The Hawaiian Kingdom Government will begin to conduct the business of their Kingdom tomorrow.”