He was just too darn busy.

In an AP article that sounds more like something from The Onion one of the top officials of Cambodia's Khmer Rouge stated that he was simply unaware of any genocide taking place.

Unlike some other war-crimes suspects from the Khmer Rouge and other regimes who said they were simply following orders, Nuon Chea told the tribunal that his position, the top aide to late leader Pol Pot, insulated him from the killings across Cambodia from 1975-1979.

"We did not have any direct contact with the bases and we were not aware of what was happening there," the 81-year-old former Khmer Rouge ideologue told two investigating judges after his arrest Wednesday, according to the detention order, which lays out the charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity, and the defendant's response.

If only the Nazis at the Nuremberg trials had thought up this excuse.

"Whoa! What was that? They were doing what?! Oh man, I like totally zoned out on that one.", said Nuon Chea upon being informed that his buddy and boss Pol Pot had slaughtered 1.7 million of his fellow citizens.