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Ethiopians mark 10th anniversary of socialist revolution

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia -- Some 70,000 students, peasants and troops marched through the capital's main square Wednesday to mark the 10th anniversary of the socialist revolution that ousted Emperor Haile Selassie.

Hundreds of Soviet-made tanks, armored personel carriers, rocket launchers and artillery rumbled through Revolution Square under bigger-than-life-size posters of founder of communism Karl Marx, former Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and Ethiopian leader Mengistu Haile Mariam.

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Shouts of 'Long live the revolution,' 'Down with imperialism' and 'Revolutionary motherland or death' resounded through the square as soldiers, students, peasants and workers marched past the reviewing stand where Mengistu and the main guests of honor, Soviet Politburo member Grigory Romanov and East German leader Erich Honecker stood at attention.

Ethiopia, considered the Soviet Union's staunchest ally in Africa, has the largest army in sub-Saharan Africa with more than 250,000 full-time soldiers.

The government said participating in the march were 55,000 civilians from student and youth organizations, peasant cooperatives and labor unions. Another 15,000 soldiers, sailors and airmen joined the three-hour parade.

The parade and speeches climaxed weeklong celebrations marking the overthrow of Selassie's pro-Western government in 1974.

On Monday, Ethiopia announced the formation of its Communist party, which will take over as the government from the ruling Provisional Military Council formed after the 1974 revolution.

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Ethiopia provides military bases for the Soviet Union on the Gulf of Aden near the entrance to the Red Sea.

In return, Moscow has provided Ethiopia with more than $2 billion in military assistance in the past 10 years to fight festering secessionist wars in the northern provinces of Eritrea and Tigre and a border dispute with Somalia.

Some Western nations, including the United States, have privately criticized Ethiopia for spending millions of dollars on its celebrations at a time when 7.2 million people are reportedly facing starvation because of severe drought.

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