Jurcevic made the statement at the conference "War Crimes Trials: Achievements and Challenges", which took place in Sarajevo on Thursday.
This was the first time the figure of 13,000 war crimes suspects had been officially mentioned. Judicial authorities previously put their number at 10,000.
Jurcevic warned that there were only 72 prosecutors at all judicial levels in the country, which he said was not enough to deal with such a large number of war crimes suspects. He also noted that no court in the country other than the State Court of Bosnia-Herzegovina had a war crimes chamber.
The conference drew attention to the problem of suspects who had fled to other countries or who had dual citizenship.
It was also said that the State Court would step up war crimes trials after the planned closure of the Hague tribunal in 2010.