East Timor's President Xanana Gusmao took stock of his new nation on Friday in a speech marking 100 days of independence, calling for greater grassroots democracy to check potential abuse of power.

Dili Bishop Carlos Filipe Ximenes Belo marked another anniversary – three years since the vote to break away from Indonesia – with a plea for an international tribunal for offenders in the 1999 violence which surrounded the vote.

Gusmao, responding to recent anti-government protests, hit back at those who "want to create a crisis" and urged people to give the government time.

"We all accept the fact that we are only now beginning in everything: in politics, in development, in building the state, in the school system, in education, etc," the former anti-Indonesian guerrilla leader said. "Beginning with myself, we are all learning to serve the nation."

A public holiday commemorated the UN-organised referendum, in which almost 80 percent voted to break away from Indonesia despite a terror campaign by Indonesian-backed local militias.

After the vote revengeful militias burnt whole towns to the ground, leaving a UN transitional government with a massive rebuilding job. Some 1,000 people were murdered in 1999 before Indonesia pulled out and the UN moved in.

Gusmao urged parliament urgently to authorise an ombudsman to hear complaints of corruption.

He called for parliament, which is dominated by the Fretilin party, to take its responsibilities more seriously and stressed the need for greater grassroots democracy, with hamlet and village chiefs elected by the people in future.

The president, a former commander of Fretilin's armed wing, had become estranged from the party in recent months. But he announced he would meet weekly with Prime Minister Mari Alkatiri in future.

Gusmao called on the new police force not to abuse its powers or act violently. "We should all remember that we have just come out of 25 years of a situation, where violence became part of our way of life [clearly, imposed on the Timorese]," he said in reference to the Indonesian occupation. "The state that we want to establish in Timor must be one that respects people."

East Timorese celebrated the holiday with soccer, volleyball and a motocross event. An open-air concert was to be held Friday evening.

Dili's Bishop Belo, writing in Friday's International Herald Tribune, said justice for the victims of 1999 had been elusive.

"Rapists, arsonists and murderers walk free, while the innocent live with their trauma. That trauma, and the people's sense of victimization, were revived with the recent acquittals in Jakarta of Indonesian police and military charged with allowing atrocities to take place," he wrote.

Indonesia's human rights court this month acquitted six army or police officers, sparking widespread international criticism.

Belo also called for action to address economic hardship in Asia's poorest country. "Much of the countryside remains in ruins, with approximately 70 to 80 percent of the population unemployed."

He urged Washington to be "mindful of the lessons of the past" as it makes initial steps towards re-establishing military relations with Indonesia.

"Will the Indonesian army, elements of which remain embittered by East Timor's independence, become emboldened by a renewal of US assistance and sponsor acts of subversion that could cause further suffering in our land?"

Belo urged the world to give maximum help for reconstruction, support a process leading to genuine justice, and guarantee protection for East Timor so that violence does not recur. "The souls of the victims demand no less," he wrote.