Ranil Wickremesinghe's presidency will be remembered for economic crisis management and the debt restructuring deal, but his record on transitional justice is one of studied evasion. Under his watch, Sri Lanka resisted every meaningful accountability mechanism proposed by the UN Human Rights Council, while maintaining a public posture of cooperation.
For Tamil families still searching for disappeared relatives, for survivors of the final stages of the war, Wickremesinghe's departure from office brings neither justice nor closure. The structures of impunity he presided over will outlast his tenure.