Astellar roster of achievers was gathered at the White House yesterday to receive the 2009 Presidential Medal of Freedom. Physicist Stephen Hawking. Bishop Desmond Tutu. Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor. Civil rights leader Joseph E. Lowery. Miami's own humanitarian medical man, Dr. Pedro José Greer Jr. Sen. Ted Kennedy. Grameen microbank founder Muhammad Yunus.

President Obama lauded each medal recipient's accomplishments and called them all agents of change. They each truly deserve the recognition.

What a contrast this was to another country's treatment of one of its native daughters. In Burma, the ruling military junta slammed Aung San Suu Kyi with another 18 months of house arrest, using as a pretext the bizarre visit to her home last year by an extremely misguided American man.

This brought condemnation from Burma's democratic neighbors, the European Union, the United States and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. But that alone won't change the junta's mind. This is one instance where U.N. sanctions have been insufficient, thanks in part to China blocking more forceful action.

More economic sanctions must be applied to the military thugs whose repression has impoverished Burma's people.

John Yettaw, the American, apparently thought he was on a mission from God when he swam across a lake to see Ms. Suu Kyi. He was too ill afterward to be sent away, according to Ms. Suu Kyi. She sent him away two days later.

They both were arrested and put on trial. Mr. Yettaw has received the unbelievably harsh sentence of seven years of hard labor. He has been hospitalized after suffering epileptic seizures.

Though Mr. Yettaw's visit was not sought nor welcomed by Ms. Suu Kyi, the generals who are so afraid of this woman likely would have cooked up another spurious reason to keep her imprisoned. She and her democratic party won an overwhelming election in 1990, but she was denied victory and imprisoned.

The junta's treatment of Ms. Suu Kyi and other political prisoners has brought much condemnation upon it. But the junta's response essentially has been: So what?

That attitude leaves the United Nations wringing its hands unless it can muster enough support from China, Burma's most powerful friend, to impose economic penalties that hit the junta in the pocketbook.

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