About 1,500 members of a right-wing group ignored a state of emergency by demonstrating in the Thai capital Saturday, but heeded a government warning not to rally outside the prime minister’s office, police said.

The number of people participating in the protest at a sports stadium against government policy on a territorial dispute with Cambodia later dwindled to less than 200, police Maj. Gen. Piya Uthayo said. No violence was reported.

The government’s Center for the Resolution of the Emergency Situation announced Friday that the Thailand Patriot Network’s plan to demonstrate outside Government House was not allowed under a state of emergency governing Bangkok.

The state of emergency was declared in April after anti-government protesters known as Red Shirts broke into the Parliament building to press their demand for early elections. About 90 people died and more than 1,400 were injured during two months of protests, which the army quashed by force on May 19.

Thailand has been rocked by mass protests and outbursts of violence since late 2005, when a group of mainly middle-class Bangkok residents known as Yellow Shirts began a campaign to oust Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was deposed in a military coup the following year.

The Red Shirt movement consists mostly of rural supporters of Thaksin who say they want a better deal in Thai society and regard the ousted prime minister as a populist leader who championed the poor.

The Thailand Patriot Network, closely allied to the Yellow Shirts, claims that the government is failing to aggressively pursue Thai claims to disputed land along the border with Cambodia.

Thailand and Cambodia both claim land around the Preah Vihear temple, named a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 2008 after Cambodia applied for the status. There have been small and sometimes deadly clashes in the area during the past few years.

The International Court of Justice awarded the temple to Cambodia in 1962.

Last week, Cambodia submitted a management plan for the temple, reviving the issue. The Thailand Patriot Network and other right-wing groups say the government should work harder to block the management plan.

In Cambodia on Friday, Foreign Minister Hor Namhong told reporters that Thai attempts to claim Preah Vihear were pointless. One Thai suggestion is that the two countries list Preah Vihear as a joint landmark with UNESCO.

“It is too late now to oppose the Preah Vihear temple being listed as a World Heritage site and also too late to ask for a joint listing of the temple,” he said. “All of these demands are just dreaming, please, prime minister of Thailand, stop dreaming like this.”

 

Associated Press